*R.  N.  WRIGHT* 


REGENERATION. 


BY  EDMUND  H.   SEARS. 


"  The  existing  state  of  Christianity  amongst  those  who  profess  it  does  not  warrant 
the  objection,  that  all  farther  advance  in  the  development  of  the  perception  we  pos- 
sess of  its  nature  and  application  is  impracticable  or  unnecessary.  If  we  have  the 
perfect  conception  of  Christianity,  we  are  making  a  lamentably  imperfect  applica- 
tion of  it ;  for  the  world,  alas  !  is  to  a  very  small  extent  under  its  power ;  if  we  have 
not  the  perfect  conception  of  it,  then  every  attempt  to  regard  it  from  a  more  lofty 
moral  point  of  view  should  be  welcomed  as  a  real  and  earnest  attempt  for  the  high- 
est welfare  of  mankind."  —  MORELL. 


PRINTED   FOR   THE 

American  (Unitarian  association. 


BOSTON: 

CROSBY,   NICHOLS,  AND    COMPANY, 

111  WASHINGTON  STREET. 

1853. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1863,  by 

THE  AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
HBTCALF  AND  OOMPANT,  STEBOBOTYPBRS  AND  PRINTERS. 


NOTE. 


THE  following  Treatise  was  written  at  the  request 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association,  who  earnestly  commend  it  to 
public  attention.  As  individuals,  they  may  not 
concur  in  every  opinion  advanced,  nor  adopt  every 
verbal  expression  employed  by  the  writer,  but  they 
unanimously  and  cordially  approve  of  the  great 
thoughts  and  principles  that  form  the  basis  of  the 
work,  and  of  the  spirit  and  temper  in  which  it  is 
written.  They  publish  it  because  they  believe  that 
the  clearness  and  strength  with  which  it  states  and 
enforces  the  great  practical  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  beauty  and  power  with  which  it 
portrays  and  recommends  the  profoundest  religious 
experience,  will  secure  and  reward  a  thorough 
study. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

PART    I. 

THE    NATURAL   MAN. 

CHAP.  I. 

THEORIES      

13 

II. 

HEBEDITART  CORRUPTION       

18 

m. 

29 

IV. 

TESTIMONY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS       .... 

36 

V. 

CHILDHOOD    

40 

VI. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  DEATH       

46 

VII. 

THE  "  ADAM  "  OF  ST.  PAUL         .... 

52 

VIIL 

THE  LAW  OF  DESCENT  BENEFICENT 

59 

PART    II. 

THE    SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

CHAP.  I. 

67 

II. 

ITS  GENERAL  AND  SPECIAL  INFLUENCE 

73 

III. 

81 

IV. 

89 

V. 

99 

VL 

DISTINCTIONS    

104 

VII. 

TOTAL  DEPRAVITY        

110 

1* 

CONTENTS. 

PART    III. 

THE    NEW    MAN. 


CHAP.  I. 

121 

II. 

CHOICE    

136 

III. 

THE  BOOKS  OPENED         

148 

IV. 

THE  BOOKS  OPENED      .               .... 

151 

V. 

THE  BOOKS  OPENED         

161 

VI. 

ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED      

167 

VII. 

183 

VIII. 

THE  MEDIATOR      

'191 

IX. 

GETHSEMANB      .        .        .        ... 

209 

X. 

214 

XI. 

NEW  HEAYENS  AND  A  NEW  EARTH       .        .        . 

232 

XII. 

RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT         .... 

239 

XIII. 

244 

INTRODUCTION. 


No  higher  question  can  be  offered  to  the  human 
intellect,  than  that  of  the  method  of  salvation  by 
Jesus  Christ.  Its  unmeasured  importance  is  obvi- 
ous to  us,  whenever  in  contemplative  mood  we  open 
the  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  and  find  that  a 
splendid  apparatus  of  means  has  been  provided ; 
for  we  know  that  this  would  not  have  been  done 
unless  momentous  interests  were  at  issue.  These 
two  questions,  What  are  we  ?  and  Whither  do  we 
tend?  will  at  times  press  painfully  upon  thoughtful 
minds,  and  demand  an  answer.  Ideals  of  a  better 
state  are  haunting  them,  and  producing  within  them 
unutterable  longings  after  peace. 

There  are  three  topics  which  cannot  fail  to  com- 
mand the  interest  and  attention  of  those  whose 
minds  are  revolving  the  great  problem  of  life  :  — >- 

The  evil,  depravity,  and  suffering  involved  in  the 
human  condition;  the  darkness  that  broods  upon 
the  earth  and  upon  our  own  spirits. 

Conceptions  of  a  better  state;  dreams  of  perfec- 


INTRODUCTION. 

tion,  visions  that  come  in  shapes  of  unearthly  beau- 
ty, floating  out  of  a  purer  ether,  and  giving  us 
gleams  of  a  better  world. 

The  way  that  lies  out  of  one  condition  into  the 
other,  out  of  the  darkness  into  the  light,  out  of 
storms  to  the  haven  of  Happier  Isles ;  in  short,  the 
method  of  salvation. 

These  are  the  topics  which  we  now  approach, 
and  we  do  it  in  the  persuasion  that  they  underlie  all 
our  business  and  all  our  theologies,  and  that,  though 
they  have  occupied  so  much  of  human  thought,  yet 
they  never  pressed  more  urgently  upon  the  common 
mind  than  now.  The  old  theologies  do  not  satisfy. 
They  do  not  answer  these  questions.  They  do  not 
so  much  give  light,  as  hang  in  the  way  of  it.  And 
yet,  because  they  are  gradually  changing  and  soft- 
ening like  convolving  clouds,  and  reflecting  new, 
though  ever-varying  hues,  they  show  that  the  light 
is  coming,  and  that  they  are  finally  to  break  away. 
Meanwhile  let  us  use  the  light  already  shining,  and 
that  will  be  a  preparation  for  more. 

The  theme  we  have  in  hand  will  lead  us  to  dis- 
cuss the  following  topics  :  the  state  of  man  by 
nature,  his  spiritual  capacities,  his  regeneration 
and  the  means  of  it.  If  any  of  our  reasonings 
should  seem  to  lie  remote  from  our  beaten  paths  of 
inquiry,  or  if  they  should  not  sound  like  the  tradi- 
tional utterances  of  denomination,  we  would  beg 
the  reader  to  consider  whether  they  may  not  be  just 
as  worthy  of  his  attention.  All  sects  are  liable  to 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

fall  into  provincialisms  of  thought ;  to  sink  the  lan- 
guage of  the  universal  Reason  into  a  corrupted  dia- 
lect ;  and  so  it  is  better,  if  possible,  on  such  themes 
as  these  to  rise  above  sect  and  take  our  stand  out- 
side of  it,  haply  if  we  may  stand  on  those  sublimer 
heights,  where  we  may  catch  the  clearer  responses 
of  the  Divine  word.  In  the  following  pages,  there- 
fore, we  propose  to  leave  behind  the  old  controversies, 
except  so  far  as  to  be  intelligible,  and  so  far  as  is 
necessary  to  show  the  truth  in  bolder  outline  by 
its  juxtaposition  with  error. 

Impressed  with  the  solemn  magnitude  of  these 
themes,  we  approach  them  in  reverent  and  listening 
mood. 


PART   I. 


THE    NATURAL    MAN. 


THE  ANCIENT   DESOLATIONS  ;    THE    RUINS  OF   MANY  GENERATIONS. 

Isaiah  Iviii.  12. 


"  These  are  ruins  indeed ;  but  they  proclaim  that  something  noble 
hath  fallen  into  ruin,  —  proclaim  it  by  signs  mournful  yet  venerable, 
like  the  desolations  of  an  ancient  temple,  —  like  the  broken  walls  and 
falling  columns  and  hollow  sounds  of  decay  that  sink  down  heavily 
among  its  deserted  recesses."  —  DEWET. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THEORIES. 

"  If  our  native  propensities  are  themselves  a  sin,  then  the  conclusion  seems  to  be 
plain  and  inevitable,  that  God  is  the  author  of  sin ;  not  merely  that  he  has  made 
beings  who  can  commit  Bin,  but  that  he  has  made  beings  a  part  of  whose  very  na- 
ture, as  it  comes  from  his  hands,  is  sin I  am  unwilling  to  plunge  into  the 

yawning  gulf  which  is  laid  open  by  such  a  process  of  thought."  —  PBOFESSOE 
STUAKT. 

THE  actual  state  of  man  by  birth  and  by  nature 
is  a  question  still  involved  in  the  controversies  of 
the  schools.  To  turn  aside  to  these  would  divert  us 
from  our  main  object ;  and  fortunately  this  subject 
can  be  taken  out  of  the  province  of  polemics,  and 
brought  to  the  test  of  sober  fact  and  reality.  We 
will  only  allude,  then,  to  the  theories  of  the  sects,  so 
far  forth  as  to  give  precision  and  completeness  to  the 
argument.  With  some  variety  of  statement  and  con- 
fusion of  coloring,  where  different  creeds  shade  off 
into  each  other,  we  shall  find  in  the  main  that  the 
prevailing  theologies  on  this  topic  fall  asunder  into 
three  forms. 

The  first  form  is  this,  —  that  man  comes  into  be- 
ing burdened  with  hereditary  guilt,  inclined  to  all 
evil  by  the  original  bend  of  his  faculties,  and  capa- 
ble of  no  good  until  God  by  a  sovereign  act  creates 
him  anew.  But  lest  we  should  misrepresent  this 
2 


14  THE    NATURAL   MAN. 

form  of  belief,  we  prefer  to  state  it  in  its  own  lan- 
guage, which  lacks  nothing  in  strength  and  clearness. 
The  Westminster  divines  say  :  — 

"  The  covenant  being  made  with  Adam,  not  only 
for  himself,  but  for  his  posterity,  all  mankind  de- 
scending from  him  by  ordinary  generation  sinned  in 
him  and  fell  with  him  in  his  first  transgression. 

"  The  sinfulness  of  that  estate  whereinto  man  fell 
consists  in  the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin,  the  want  of 
original  righteousness,  and  the  corruption  of  his 
whole  nature,  which  is  commonly  called  original 
sin,  together  with  all  actual  transgressions  which 
proceed  from  it." 

Another  standard  of  faith  states  the  doctrine 
thus :  — 

"  By  this  sin  they  [the  first  parents]  and  we  in 
them  fell  from  original  righteousness  and  communion 
with  God,  and  so  became  dead  in  sin,  and  wholly  de- 
filed in  all  the  faculties  and  parts  of  soul  and  body. 

"  They  being  the  root  and  by  God's  appointment 
standing  in  the  room  and  stead  of  all  mankind,  the 
guilt  of  their  sin  is  imputed,  and  corrupted  nature  con- 
veyed to  all  their  posterity  descending  from  them  by 
ordinary  generation. 

"  Every  sin,  both  original  and  actual,  being  a  trans- 
gression of  the  righteous  law  of  God,  and  contrary 
thereunto,  doth  in  its  own  nature  bring  guilt  upon  the 
sinner,  whereby  he  is  bound  over  to  the  wrath  of  God 
and  curse  of  the  law,  and  so  made  subject  to  death, 
with  all  miseries,  spiritual,  temporal,  and  eternal."  * 

*  Ratio  Disciplinw.    Confession  of  Faith,  Chap.  VI. 


THEORIES.  15 

We  confess  to  a  shudder  of  the  nerves  when  copy- 
ing these  words,  which  we  do  chiefly  to  make  our 
statement  exhaustive.  We  are  apt  to  confound  truth 
with  error  under  the  fog  of  indefinite  language.  It  is 
a  great  deal  better  to  lay  them  side  by  side,  stripped 
of  all  the  fine  gauze  which  a  more  modern  fastid- 
iousness would  weave  around  them,  that  each  may 
be  seen  in  its  sharpest  individuality.  Then  Chris- 
tians would  better  understand  each  other,  and  the 
unwary  would  not  be  beguiled. 

We  find  a  difficulty  in  framing  an  argument  against 
the  theory  of  man  here  drawn  out.  An  argument 
starts  from  premises  that  are  self-evident,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  conclusions  that  were  not.  But  we  could 
not  start  with  any  thing  more  obvious  than  the  axiom, 
that  no  man  is  guilty  for  what  took  place  before  he 
was  born.  We  could  not  get  back  to  any  premises 
more  self-evident  than  the  absurdity  which  these 
propositions  start  with.  They  begin  where  reason- 
ing generally  ends.  The  result  of  a  reductio  ad  ab- 
surdum^  which  generally  comes  out  at  the  end  of  a 
demonstration,  they  put  at  the  beginning  as  a  truth 
assumed.  How  unprofitable,  then,  this  whole  contro- 
versy !  How  much  better  for  the  parties  rather  to 
cease  from  their  logic  and  examine  in  a  friendly  way 
their  logical  machinery,  if  perchance  they  may  find 
whose  it  is  that  is  so  out  of  joint,  that  in  the  moral 
calculus  it  refuses  to  give  the  result  that  two  and  two 
make  four! 

There  is  another  reason  why  it  is  not  worth  while 
to  enter  on  this  branch  of  the  subject.  Pleasing 


16  THE    NATT7RAL    MAN. 

omens  already  indicate  that  this  form  of  belief  is 
ceasing  to  become  active.  We  lay  it  off,  then,  in  the 
persuasion  that  it  is  taking  its  place  among  the  fos- 
silized remains  of  a  former  theologic  world,  which 
old  convulsions  had  turned  up  and  left  bare  to  our 
wondering  and  curious  gaze. 

There  is  another  view  which  may  briefly  be  stated 
thus.  Men,  as  they  now  come  into  the  world,  are  in 
the  same  moral  state  in  which  the  first  man  was  cre- 
ated. His  sin  affected  no  one  but  himself ;  and  hu- 
man nature  is  not  changed  by  the  fall.  The  farther 
we  trace  the  stream  of  life  towards  its  beginning,  the 
purer  we  find  it,  and  with  every  one  it  is  perfectly 
pure  at  the  period  of  infancy.  Man's  true  culture, 
then,  is  the  development  of  his  powers  from  within 
outward,  under  such  external  aids  as  this  probation 
affords.  What  is  corrupt  comes  to  him  from  with- 
out, from  wrong  education,  from  vicious  example, 
from  the  influence  of  a  bad  state  of  society.  He 
starts  in  life  entirely  disconnected  with  the  past,  and 
has  only  to  choose  the  good  or  the  evil  that  is  offered 
him. 

This  theory  of  man,  which  "  cuts  the  thread  of  his- 
tory from  behind  us  every  hour,"  is  here  stated  very 
nearly  as  it  came  from  the  lips  of  its  reputed  framer,* 
and  with  some  modifications  and  additions  it  has 
maintained  its  integrity  for  ages  in  the  progress  of 
human  opinion.  Its  history  has  run  nearly  parallel 
with  that  of  the  doctrine  first  described,  perhaps 

*  See  the  account  of  the  system  of  Pelagius,  Murdock's  Mosheim, 
Vol.  I.  p.  371. 


THEORIES.  17 

sometimes  borrowing  from  it  a  darker  tinge  than  its 
own,  or  a  clothing  from  its  mystic  phraseology.  May 
we  suggest  that  it  is  a  survey  of  human  nature  only 
upon  the  surface,  without  sounding  its  mystic  and 
troubled  deep  ?  Hence  those  who  adopt  it  so  often 
recede  from  it  as  the  mysteries  that  lie  within  suc- 
cessively reveal  themselves.  Hence  a  church  formed 
around  this  as  one  of  its  central  principles  will  sel- 
dom retain  that  class  of  minds  whose  habits  of  thought 
are  ascetic  or  introspective,  or  whose  deep  and  surg- 
ing sensibilities  demand  some  potent  voice  to  guide 
and  to  soothe  them,  some  light  to  explain  their  dark 
and  terrible  on-goings.  Its  recruits  come  from  the 
side  of  the  world ;  not  from  those  who  had  before 
left  it,  and  are  passing  on  to  deeper  experiences. 

The  first  theory  so  merges  the  individual  in  the 
species,  that  he  is  there  lost  and  buried  in  one  solid 
and  gloomy  mass  of  corruption,  and  the  sin  of  one 
man  was  the  sin  of  all.  By  the  last  it  is  resolved 
back  into  that  extreme  individualism  which  admits 
of  no  unitary  life,  but  makes  it  exist  in  fragments  or 
in  endless  and  independent  atoms.  Does  this  last 
meet  the  facts  of  history,  of  consciousness,  of  revealed 
truth,  better  than  the  other  ?  Does  it  meet  the  de- 
mands that  come  up  from  the  profounder  depths  of 
human  nature  itself?  We  shall  see,  while,  having 
done  with  the  negative  side  of  the  question,  we  now 
advance  to  the  positive. 


CHAPTER    II. 

HEREDITARY  CORRUPTION. 

"  Though  all  animals  be  fitted  hy  nature  for  the  life  which  their  instincts  teach 
them  to  pursue,  naturalists  have  learned  to  recognize  certain  aberrant  and  muti- 
lated forms,  in  which  the  type  of  the  special  class  to  which  they  belong  seems  dis- 
torted and  degraded And  now,  in  the  times  of  the  high-placed  human 

destiny  of  those  formally  delegated  monarchs  of  the  creation  whose  nature  it  is  to 
look  behind  them  upon  the  past  and  before  them  with  fear  and  mingled  hope  upon 
the  future,  do  we  not  as  certainly  see  the  elements  of  an  ever-sinking  state  of -degra- 
dation which  is  to  exist  for  ever,  as  of  a  state  of  ever-increasing  perfectibility  to 
which  there  is  to  be  no  end  ?  "  —  FOOTPRINTS  OP  THE  CREATOR. 

THERE  is  a  distinction,  obvious  to  any  one,  be- 
tween original  sin  and  original  propensities  to  sin ; 
between  hereditary  guilt  and  hereditary  evil.  Ma-n 
is  guilty  for  what  passes  into  wrong  action  through 
his  free  volitions  ;  for  what  is  wrong  in  his  volitions, 
but  not  for  what  is  wrong  in  his  original  structure. 
He  is  guilty,  not  for  the  wrong  dispositions  he  inher- 
its, but  for  the  wrong  dispositions  which  he  admits 
into  his  own  voluntary  life;  not  for  the  depravity 
that  was  innate,  but  for  the  depravity  that  passes 
into  conduct.  His  original  moral  constitution, 
whether  good  or  bad,  he  could  not  control  any 
more  than  he  could  control  the  color  of  his  complex- 
ion ;  and  he  is  no  more  responsible  for  the  one  than 
the  other.  Hence  the  obvious  distinction  between  a 
nature  which  is  sinful  and  a  nature  which  is  depraved. 


HEREDITARY  CORRUPTION.  19 

.  4T 

Putting  theories  aside,  we  now  come  to  the  stern 
facts  of  experience  and  history.  We  must  take 
these,  not  as  we  would  have  them,  but  as  we  find 
them.  Hereditary  sin  or  transmitted  guilt  is  an 
idea  which  cannot  be  conceived  without  conflict  of 
thought,  or  expressed,  but  in  terms  of  self-contra- 
diction. 

But  transmissive  dispositions,  and  proclivities  to 
evil,  coming  down  along  a  line  of  tainted  ancestry,  and 
gathering  strength  and  volume  on  their  way  by  every 
generation  that  transmits  them,  is  a  fact  that  is  univer- 
sal, and  so  an  irreversible  law  of  human  descent. 

In  unfolding  the  evidence  of  this  proposition,  let 
us  commence  with  statements  of  a  general  nature, 
which  challenge  universal  assent,  and  whose  truth  is 
open  to  the  eyes  of  all. 

What,  then,  is  the  actual  condition  of  the  race  ? 
Taken  in  the  mass,  it  lies  in  spiritual  darkness,  each 
generation  receiving  from  the  past  its  gloomy  super- 
stitions and  horrid  idolatries.  A  race  in  its  true 
condition,  not  less  than  a  family  or  a  state,  would 
form  a  certain  organic  whole.  It  would  be  a  family 
of  nations,  society  in  its  grandest  form,  and  that  a 
form  of  beneficence,  taking  up  every  people  and 
every  tribe  into  one  circulatory  system  of  benefits 
and  blessings,  that  poured  life  and  happiness  from 
all  to  each  and  from  each  to  all.  Diplomacy,  trade, 
commerce,  would  form  a  grand  system,  that  kept 
girdling  the  globe  with  charities,  or  perhaps  rather 
the  arteries  and  veins  that  kept  sending  life  into  all 
the  members,  and  bringing  it  back.  Instead  of  this, 


20  THE    NATURAL    MAN.  , 

the  nations  and  peoples  are  fallen  asunder ;  we  de- 
bate whether  they  belong  to  the  same  species ;  each 
is  parted  off  to  its  solitary  darkness  and  its  bloody 
customs,  and  they  present  the  spectacle  of  the  frag- 
ments of  a  mighty  ruin. 

But  survey  the  fragments  themselves,  and  what 
do  we  find?  Each  organized  around  its  favorite 
falsehood,  or  else  disorganized  altogether,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  savage  tribes.  They  present  the  spec- 
tacle of  class  preying  upon  class,  the  weak  lying  as 
victims  to  the  power  of  the  strong.  If  you  choose 
to  except  the  Christian  nations,  which  are  no  excep- 
tions at  all,  yet  remember  that  three  fourths  of  the 
world  lie  under  the  night  of  barbarism,  and  need, 
not  merely  improvement,  but  re-creation  out  of  chaos. 
And  let  us  remember  that  the  mission  of  Christian- 
ity was  not  development,  but  reconstruction*  Its 
history  would  show  how  slowly  the  work  is  done. 
A  distinguished  statesman  of  the  last  century  de- 
clared that  the  history  of  nations  was  a  record  of 
wrongs,  and  that  the  offices  of  kindness  which  one 
nation  had  rendered  to  another  would  not  fill  ten 
pages  of  its  annals.  The  signs  of  a  better  day 
which  now  appear  would  mitigate,  but  hardly  re- 
verse, his  judgment. 

Now  we  must  not  look  exclusively  at  the  individ- 
ual virtues  that  bloom  out  among  every  people.  We 
must  survey  human  nature  through  its  grand  organ- 
izations, and  accept  the  fact  that  evil  and  wrong  are 
not  functional,  but  organic  also.  And  we  must  also 

*  Isa.  lx.;  Rom  viii.  19-22;  Isa.  Ixviii.  12. 


HEREDITARY  CORRUPTION.  21 

remember  that  we  are  surveying  a  race  of  which  we 
ourselves  are  members,  and  that  our  judgment  is  ex- 
posed to  the  sway  of  its  corruptions.  Could  we  rise 
out  of  it,  and  survey  it  from  a  point  outside ;  could 
we  look  down  upon  it  with  an  angel's  eye,  from 
some  mild-beaming  and  sinless  planet,  and  take  into 
one  view  the  bloody  march  of  its  history,  though  we 
might  not  say  with  Mr.  Burke,  that  this  earth  is  the 
"  bedlam  of  the  solar  system,"  we  should  certainly 
allow  that  it  lay  in  wickedness,  and  that  we  surveyed 
the  moral  ruins  of  an  apostate  world. 

Passing  on  to  a  view  not  quite  so  general,  we 
come  to  the  fact  that  the  human  species  fall  into  di- 
visions of  races,  and  that  each  race  has  its  own  pecu- 
liar life  and  type  of  character  descending  through  in- 
numerable generations.  Time,  culture,  and  physical 
environments  exert  their  plastic  power  within  a  cer- 
tain range;  but  during  three  or  four  generations,  and, 
indeed,  during  any  known  historical  periods,  they 
never  break  up  the  type.  The  origin  of  races  is  a 
question  from  which  we  retire.  It  is  all  the  same,  as 
regards  this  argument,  whether  the  streams  of  mi- 
gration first  radiated  from  one  or  from  many  centres. 
We  simply  point  to'the  fact,  that  each  bears  along 
its  own  qualities  and  colorings,  which  do  not  disap- 
pear through  series  of  ages ;  that  they  become  more 
distinctive  in  their  divergence,  and  cut  their  channels 
deeper  as  they  flow.  The  African  is  torn  from  his 
native  groves,  and  driven  through  every  variety  of 
clime  and  fortune,  but  his  ancestral  life  he  never 
loses.  The  cold  of  Canadian  hills  does  not  freeze  it 


22  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

up.  The  fire  of  tropical  suns  does  not  melt  it  out 
of  him.  The  Jew  floats  on  for  ever,  an  element  in 
the  world's  population,  which  all  its  attritions  cannot 
break  in  pieces,  nor  its  fiercest  surges  dissolve.  Let 
art  and  civilisation  cover  up  this  ancestral  life  under 
fairer  forms  and  shows ;  let  time  file  away  its  rougher 
features  as  man  emerges  out  of  barbarism,  and  then 
let  the  old  temptations  encircle  him  anew,  and  the 
old  spirit  will  sweep  through  him  and  reappear. 
Refinement  of  manners  and  national  comity  will 
give  way  before  it  like  threads  of  gossamer.  A  desire 
for  his  neighbor's  lands  was  the  unappeasable  greed 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  his  cognate  tribes,  emerging 
grimly  out  of  the  Cimbric  forests,  and  pouring  suc- 
cessive waves  of  conquest  over  England.  After  the 
lapse  of  a  thousand  years,  its  motions  are  beating 
over  the  Mexican  and  the  Sikh,  in  a  resurgent  wave 
of  the  same  barbarism. 

When  a  nation  is  composed  of  the  same  race, 
and  is  therefore  homogeneous,  a  national  life  and 
national  character  become  developed,  the  most  in- 
tense and  distinctive.  Individuals  become  members 
of  the  same  collective  body,  thrilled  by  its  pulse, 
and  marching  to  the  same  drill.  They  form  one 
medium  for  the  same  mighty  spirit  which  sways  the 
individual,  as  the  music-master  touches  to  one  tune 
all  the  strings  of  his  lyre.  Nor  does  it  make  any 
difference  when  its  master  minds  disappear  from  the 
earth,  except  that  the  national  life  becomes  still 
more  deep  and  intensive.  As  if  they  departed  only 
to  come  nearer  on  the  spiritual  side,  and  breathe  on 


HEREDITARY   CORRTTPTION.  23 

the  souls  of  the  living,  they  become  its  gods  and  he- 
roes, and  live  in  its  history  and  its  songs.  The  past 
is  alive  in  the  present,  and  common  vices  and  virtues 
are  perpetuated,  and  stamp  the  same  lines  on  indi- 
vidual character.  The  same  hatreds  descend  from 
parent  to  child,  increasing  in  rancor  on  their  way. 
If  the  common  life  is  prevailingly  corrupt,  the  corrup- 
tion will  thus  channel  its  bed  deeper  and  broader,  till 
the  last  barriers  break  away.  It  destroys  the  organi- 
zation through  which  it  acted:  the  nation's  life  is 
consummated :  it  falls  in  pieces,  and  perishes  miser- 
ably from  the  face  of  the  earth.  This  was  the 
"  progress  and  termination  "  of  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth, and  all  its  neighboring  nations. 

But  we  suppose  that  the  educationists  of  a  certain 
school  might  here  say,  This  is  all  the  result  of  bad 
example  and  influence;  take  the  youth  out  of  this 
corrupt  society,  and  from  amid  those  unpropitious 
circumstances,  and  all  would  be  changed.  Waiving 
now  the  question  whence  originated  this  corrupt  so- 
ciety and  these  unpropitious  circumstances,  we  will 
only  say  that  it  would  be  exceedingly  edifying  to  see 
this  notion  brought  to  the  test  of  experiment.  Let 
the  educationist  take  the  babe  of  the  Bushman,  and 
rock  him  in  a  New  England  cradle  and  a  New  Eng- 
land home,  and  see  if  a  New  England  character 
would  be  produced  as  his  natural  faculties  unfold. 
We  do  not  say  that  he  would  grow  up  the  same  be- 
ing that  he  would  in  his  native  society,  under  the  re- 
creative agencies  that  now  act  upon  him ;  but  who- 
ever denies  that  the  instincts,  biases,  and  impulses  of 


24  THE   NATURAL   MAN. 

his  tribe  would  surely  appear  and  enter  as  an  inde- 
structible element  into  his  character,  denies  what  ev- 
ery naturalist  knows  to  be  true.  The  outward  man 
even  to  the  body,  the  most  external  clothing  of  the 
spirit,  is  shaped  and  moulded  in  some  sort  by  the 
faculties  that  lie  within.  And  this  holds  not  of  mere 
feature  and  expression,  but  of  the  whole  internal 
structure  of  brain,  nerve,  and  muscle,  making  the 
entire  human  form  the  exponent  of  the  soul.  The 
ancestral  spirit,  by  a  sort  of  elective  affinity,  appro- 
priates the  matter  and  form  that  shall  fitly  configure 
and  manifest  its  own  peculiar  life.  So  that  the  nat- 
uralist, as  soon  as  he  looks  on  the  human  form, 
though  it  be  that  of  the  sleeping  child,  knows  the 
race,  and  sometimes  the  tribe  and  family,  to  which  it 
is  to  be  referred ;  and  he  knows,  unless  some  pow- 
erful countervailing  agencies  come  in,  the  forms  of 
domestic  and  social  life,  including  customs,  man- 
ners, art,  worship,  in  which  the  spirit  within  will 
seek  embodiment  and  exercise.  The  ancient  ten- 
dencies have  the  moulding  of  us,  then,  before  we  are 
born.  In  their  book  "  all  our  members  are  written." 
They  shape  and  tone  the  finest  tissues  of  our  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  structure,  ere  yet  we  have  seen 
the  light.  So  that  the  infant  bears  the  stamp  of  his 
lineage,  and  is  himself  the  configuration  of  the  old 
ancestral  spirit.  Where  a  race  is  on  a  course  of  de- 
generation and  moral  decay,  we  see  it  in  the  forms 
and  features  of  the  youngest  offspring.  Where  there 
is  purity,  intelligence,  and  celestial  love,  they  put  on 
the  forms  of  masculine  dignity,  womanly  grace,  and 


HEREDITARY  CORRUPTION.  25 

those  early  spiritual  charms  that  beam  out  from 
within  all  conscious  and  personal  attainments;  but 
there  are  tribes  of  men  of  whom  just  the  reverse  is 
true,  and  where  humanity  recedes  and  sinks  down 
through  the  whole  scale  of  brutal  deformity,  where 
what  is  manly  is  almost  lost  and  what  is  brutal  al- 
most alone  appears,  where  the  brow  retreats  away, 
and  the  lower  features  project  forward,  which  the 
lowest  appetites  and  fiendish  passions  have  made 
their  own  disgusting  image. 

All  violations  of  the  divine  laws,  as  they  pervade 
our  entire  constitution,  tend  not  only  to  individual 
ruin,  but  the  degradation  of  species.  The  tribes  to 
which  we  have  just  referred  hold  a  relation  to  the 
whole  human  family,  such  as  monsters  and  idiots 
hold  to  the  particular  families  in  which  they  are 
born.  Malformations  of  mind  and  body  are  referable 
to  preexistent  infractions  of  these  laws,  and  some- 
times many  generations  intervene  between  the  causes 
and  their  ultimate  and  dismal  results.  This  is  a 
law  of  transmission  through  all  known  grades  of  be- 
ing. It  is  not  peculiar  to  man,  but  it  runs  along  the 
descending  scale  of  all  created  natures  below  him. 
It  underlies  all  the  phenomena  of  reproduction, 
growth,  and  decay.  And  the  malformation  ranges 
through  the  vast  interval  between  the  first  slight  dis- 
tortion from  the  fair  and  symmetrical  original,  to 
where  the  distortion  is  complete  in  monster  individ- 
uals of  a  family,  or  monster  families  of  a  species.* 

*  See  an  interesting  chapter  in  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator, 
on  the  degradation  of  species. 
3 


26  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

If  we  narrow  down  our  sphere  of  observation 
from  races  and  nations  to  private  households,  we 
get  illustrations  of  the  law  of  descent  which  are 
familiar  to  all.  The  resemblance  which  was  general 
becomes  more  and  more  special  till  we  come  down 
to  single  families.  How  notorious  is  the  fact,  that 
the  peculiar  mental,  moral,  and  physical  qualities  of 
the  parents  are  coined  anew  and  expressed  in  the 
features  and  toned  in  the  temperaments  of  the  chil- 
dren! When  children  of  the  same  family  have  been 
separated  wide  asunder,  and  the  streams  of  migra- 
tion have  diverged  into  regions  having  no  intercom- 
munication, and  the  modifying  influences  of  cli- 
mate, marriage  with  other  families,  and  diversified 
occupations  have  been  at  work  two  hundred  years, 
still  we  have  known  the  stranger  pass  from  one 
region  to  the  other  and  point  out  the  common  de- 
scendants before  hearing  their  names.  Thus  habits 
of  mind  become  inwrought  and  infibred  with  the 
natures  of  offspring.  And  thus  fearful  are  our  re- 
sponsibilities, for  such  is  the  poison  or  the  healing 
virtue  which  we  infuse  into  the  stream  of  being  that 
sweeps  by  us.  According  to  the  life  within  which 
we  choose  to  cherish  and  manifest,  we  leave  an  in- 
heritance of  blessing  or  a  cleaving  curse  to  the  gen- 
erations ! 

Scarcely  less  in  form  and  feature  than  in  language 
are  the  transmissive  qualities  and  dispositions  of  a 
people  to  be  discerned.  Language  is  never  an  as- 
semblage of  arbitrary  signs  among  the  people  with 
whom  it  is  native  and  living.  It  is  the  crystalliza- 


HEREDITARY  CORRUPTION.  27 

tion  of  their  most  interior  mind,  and  it  shows  the 
most  peculiar  colorings  of  their  thought  and  senti- 
ment fixed  and  preserved.  Hereditary  dispositions 
not  only  shape  the  features,  but  the  vocal  organs"; 
and  they  give  them  that  tone,  compass,  texture,  and 
flexibility,  whereby  they  shall  prepare  for  themselves 
an  appropriate  utterance.  They  form  their  own 
gamut,  and  then  they  rise  and  fall  through  it  as 
they  will.  They  shape  the  human  lyre  for  their 
own  use,  and  then  they  sweep  it  with  their  own 
music.  We  know  that  every  animal  species  is  born 
into  the  instinctive  use  of  a  natural  language,  whose 
signs  are  uniform  from  age  to  age.  Just  as  true  is 
it  that  the  same  propensities  in  men  will  seek  the 
same  expression,  and  pre-adapt  the  organs  to  every 
shade  of  meaning,  and  that  these  organs  are  touched 
by  the  hereditary  life  and  toned  by  the  ancestral  spirit, 
—  for  it  is  spirit  that  appropriates  matter  and  moulds 
it  and  makes  it  flexile  to  its  uses.  Hence  those  who 
have  strong  mental  and  spiritual  affinities  soon 
learn  and  speak  each  other's  language ;  but  let  the 
children  of  a  people  long  savage  and  brutalized  be 
taught  a  language  flexile  to  the  higher  sentiments, 
and  then  be  left  to  themselves.  They  will  most  as- 
suredly sink  such  a  language  into  miserable  barba- 
risms, which,  though  not  cognate  with  their  own 
tongue,  shall  be  allied  to  it  in  sound.  For  it  is  not 
they  that  speak,  but  a  line  of  foul  ancestry  is  speak- 
ing through  them.  The  missionaries,  when  trans- 
lating the  Bible  into  the  tongues  of  native  savages, 
put  the  best  Christianity  into  those  tongues  that 


28  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

they  will  hold.  It  is  curious  sometimes  to  render 
back  literally,  and  see  the  Christianity  that  comes 
out  of  them.  Let  our  educationist  take  the  young- 
est child  of  the  Polynesian  savage,  and  teach  him 
to  speak  with  "  pure  tone "  the  dialect  of  mercy. 
Or  if  he  can  find  a  lineal  representative  of  a  tribe 
of  the  Northern  forests,  whose  language  Pritchard 
says  "  resembles  the  cries  of  wild  beasts  rather  than 
the  sounds  of  the  human  voice,"  since  bestial  passions 
so  long  had  growled  through  its  gutterals,  let  him 
train  his  larynx  at  once  to  vibrate  to  the  soft  sounds 
and  the  breezy  motion  of  Tuscan  airs.  Scrip- 
ture saith  that  the  primitive  men  had  first  one  lan- 
guage and  "one  lip."  But  they  "travelled  from 
the  East";  they  left  the  golden  regions  of  that  love 
by  which  human  thoughts  and  sentiments  are  fused 
together  and  find  harmonious  utterance,  and  the 
primitive  language  was  resolved  into  jangling  dia- 
lects, each  the  howl  of  some  selfish  passion,  —  like 
a  strain  of  many  parts  breaking  down  into  discords, 
when  each  is  glad  to  withdraw  his  part  from  the 
general  clang.  And  hence  the  dispersion  of  ancient 
and  of  every  modern  Babel; 


CHAPTER    III. 

ACQUIRED  INSTINCTS. 

"  It  might  be  sufficient,  perhaps,  to  state  the  well-known  fact,  that  dispositions 
and  propensities,  and  consequently  all  habits  that  hare  acquired  the  force  of  these, 
are  actually  transmitted  to  descendants."  —  KINMOST'S  NATURAL  HISTORY  or  MAN. 

WE  suppose  that,  if  Pelagius  were  to  rise  from 
his  repose,  he  might  bring  an  objection  somewhat 
on  this  wise.  The  facts  which  have  now  been 
stated  do  not  prove  any  innate  depravation  of  hu- 
man nature.  All  its  propensities  are  in  themselves 
good.  They  only  become  depraved  through  volun- 
tary perversion  and  abuse.  The  senses  are  all  good, 
and  even  the  animal  appetites  and  passions.  Things 
in  themselves  good  may  be  used  either  for  good 
or  evil  purposes.  Appetite  is  for  self-preservation, 
desire  for  property  is  to  excite  to  industry,  combat- 
iveness  to  defend  the  right,  reason  to  investigate 
truth,  and  reverence  to  worship  God.  If  in  their 
perversion  they  produce  licentiousness,  avarice,  mur- 
der, sophistry,  and  superstition,  the  fault  lies  in  the 
use  and  not  in  the  possession,  and  so  all  that  is  in 
man  is  originally  good  and  pure. 

If  the  traveller,  musing  amid  the  splendid  ruins 
of  Palmyra,  should  see  in  the  broken  entablatures, 
*  3« 


30  THE    NATURAL   MAN. 

and  tottering  porticos,  and  columns  half  buried  in 
rubbish  and  sand,  the  city  of  the  desert  queen  in 
its  primitive  glory,  his  imagination,  we  suppose, 
would  be  deemed  somewhat  fertile  and  illusive.  All 
that  he  sees  in  itself  is  good  and  beautiful,  and 
once  formed  structures  through  whose  halls  passed 
a  train  of  joyous  beings,  or  around  whose  domestic 
altars  clustered  the  virtues  and  charities.  All  the 
parts  of  those  structures  may  be  there  still,  but  not 
with  their  original  adaptations  and  symmetries,  and 
that  makes  all  the  difference  between  a  city  in  its 
splendor  and  a  city  in  its  ruins. 

Man  loses  none  of  his  faculties  in  the  process  of 
his  deterioration,  but  he  does  lose  their  original  sym- 
metry and  harmony.  There  is  a  certain  relation 
between  sense  and  reason  and  affection,  which 
makes  man's  mind  the  fresh  print  and  copy  of  the 
Creator's.  There  is  that  distortion,  or  complete  in- 
version, which  makes  it  the  image  of  the  demon's. 
Sense  may  serve  the  reason,  or  reason  may  be  the 
subject  of  sense.  Affection  may  be  placed  supremely 
on  God  or  on  self.  The  faculties  may  be  toned  and 
harmonized,  and  move  in  heavenly  order,  giving  a 
sense  of  that  wholeness  and  complete  unity  which 
exist  in  the  Divine  nature.  This  unity  may  be 
broken  up,  and  hence  there  may  arise  the  sense  of 
inward  conflict,  as  if  nature  by  some  dire  convulsion 
were  riven  asunder.  Human  nature,  to  be  trans- 
mitted in  its  purity,  must  be  transmitted  not  only 
with  all  its  original  powers,  but  in  its  divine  pro- 
portions and  harmonies.  If  it  comes  with  the  sen- 


ACQUIRED    INSTINCTS.  31 

suous  powers  developed  into  monstrous  and  morbid 
action,  and  the  reason  shorn  of  its  brightness,  it  is 
a  nature  darkened  and  distorted,  and  therefore  de- 
praved. 

Dr.  South  thus  nobly  describes  the  understanding 
of  man  in  paradise :  "  It  was  then  sublime,  clear, 
and  aspiring,  and  as  it  were  the  soul's  upper  region, 
lofty  and  serene,  free  from  the  vapors  and  disturb- 
ances of  the  inferior  affections.  In  sum,  it  was 
quick  and  lively,  open  as  the  day,  untainted  as  the 
morning,  full  of  the  innocence  and  sprightliness  of 
youth  ;  it  gave  the  soul  a  full,  bright  view  into  all 
things,  and  was  not  only  a  window,  but  itself  a  pros- 
pect." The  reason,  in  its  sinless  and  crystal  clear- 
ness, receives  into  itself  the  images  of  heavenly 
things,  as  the  limpid  lake  receives  and  copies  the 
overhanging  scenery.  But  as  man  sinks  lower  and 
lower  into  the  outward,  he  loses  the  power  of  spirit- 
ual sight  and  intuition,  and  when  darkened  and 
buried  under  the  foldings  of  sense,  immortality  be- 
comes, not  a  perception,  but  a  tradition.  The  light 
from  within  and  from  above  is  shut  out,  and  the 
external  world  alone  is  real.  The  mind  gropes  after 
truth,  through  the  painful  steps  of  a  darkling  and 
a  drudging  logic,  on  its  "  dim  and  perilous  way  " 
through  the  mazes  of  error,  of  doubt,  and  denial. 
Hence  came  the  necessity  of  a  revelation  from  with- 
out. It  was  not  necessary  when  reason  was  a  clear 
glass  that  mirrored  back  the  skies.  But  when  the 
"  inner  light "  sank  down  amid  the  vapors  and  dis- 
turbances of  the  inferior  affections,  till  it  ceased  to 


32  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

shine  clearly,  and  the  feet  stumbled  on  the  dark 
mountains,  revelation  came  with  its  outward  signs. 
Christ  appeared  with  the  power  of  miracle,  —  evi- 
dence addressed  to  the  senses,  since  into  sense  men 
had  so  grosssly  fallen, — and  while  it  shows  the  Di- 
vine condescension,  it  shows  in  just  the  same  degree 
the  fall  and  the  distortion  of  the  human  powers. 

But  there  is  another  fact  which  is  a  full  answer  to 
the  objection  we  have  in  hand.  Though  man  loses 
none  of  his  original  faculties,  —  since  in  that  case  he 
would  cease  to  be  man,  —  he  does  acquire  new  and 
corrupt  tastes  and  impulses,  and  these  in  their  turn 
become  transmissive.  This  is  a  fact  as  well  known 
and  established,  not  only  in  respect  to  man,  but 
all  species  that  have  the  power  of  reproduction,  as 
any  other  fact  in  natural  history.  There  are  certain 
acquired  instincts  that  perpetuate  themselves,  and 
change  the  habits,  and  sometimes  degrade  the  race, 
in  that  line  of  descent.  Not  to  write  but  a  chapter 
in  natural  history,  let  the  reader  consult  to  his  sat- 
isfaction the  interesting  section  of  Pritchard  on  that 
subject.*  It  is  a  well-known  fact,  that  the  vice  of 
intemperance  is  propagated  in  this  way ;  the  dis- 
eased appetite  descending  from  sire  to  son  as  a  bale- 
ful heritage  of  corruption.  As  a  single  fact  often 
weighs  more  with  some  minds  than  a  volume  of  ar- 
gument, we  are  tempted  to  relate  one  which  comes 
on  authority  that  cannot  be  questioned.  A  drunken 
parent  had  several  sons,  all  of  whom,  with  one  ex- 

*  Natural  History  of  Man,  Sec.  VIII. 


ACQUIRED   INSTINCTS.  33 

ception,  fell  into  the  same  degradation  as  himself. 
That  son  maintained  his  virtue,  but  the  conflict  was 
long  and  fearful.  The  depraved  appetite  which  he 
never  indulged,  followed  him  and  tormented  him 
as  if  the  word  "  rum  "  was  rung  by  some  demon 
into  his  ears.  Resistance  at  last  silenced  the  demon 
and  drove  him  out.  Such  force  is  there  in  a  human 
will  when  fortified  by  the  spirit  of  God ;  but  when 
the  barrier  gives  way  again  and  again  through  a 
series  of  generations,  the  tide  of  corruption  gathers 
volume  and  velocity  till  it  sweeps  the  barriers  before 
it  like  rushwork,  and  the  whole  nature  is  given  up 
to  desolation. 

But  there  are  depraved  affections  and  tempers, 
witnessed  on  a  yet  wider  scale,  which  can  never  be- 
long to  an  untainted  moral  constitution.  The  in- 
stinct of  self-defence  we  will  not  arraign  ;  but  pleas- 
ure in  the  infliction  of  pain,  which  is  the  essence  of 
all  cruelty,  and  which  fills  the  world  with  mourning, 
is  the  sure  mark  of  a  nature  branded  with  the  curse 
of  Cain.  It  is  first  seen  in  the  child  who  tortures 
the  insect  for  his  pastime,  or  who  roams  abroad,  not 
to  rejoice  in  the  happiness  that  gushes  from  fields 
and  groves,  but  to  murder  God's  innocent  creatures 
and  mangle  them  in  pieces.  It  is  seen  among  men 
in  that  love  of  war  for  its  own  sake,  which  consti- 
tutes the  very  soul  of  murder.  The  business  of  war 
is  entered  upon,  not  as  a  work  of  horrible  necessity, 
but  as  a  work  which  affords  a  certain  class  of  ac- 
quired instincts  their  keenest  relish.  Its  art  is  con- 
templated with  pleasurable  emotions  not  less  lively 


34  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

than  those  of  the  sculptor  when  breathing  over  his 
work  the  prayer  of  Pygmalion.*  There  are  powers 
in  man  which  need  only  to  be  restored  to  their  first 
symmetry  and  order.  The  acquired  and  demonizing 
instincts  of  cruelty  and  revenge,  need  not  .to  be  re- 
stored, but  purged  away. 

The  history  of  every  acquired  instinct  would  dis- 
close three  distinct  stages  of  development.  There 
is,  first,  the  transient  emotion  which  ebbs  and  flows. 
Then  there  is  the  fixed  mood  of  mind  into  which  it 
settles  down,  when  it  operates  an  organic  change  in 
the  moral,  and  thence  in  the  physical  structure.  And, 
lastly,  there  is  the  altered  constitution  reproduced  in 
the  offspring.  Anger  at  first  is  a  flash  of  fire.  An- 
ger hoarded  up  becomes  hate,  and  it  settles  into  the 
brow  and  grates  through  the  tones  of  the  voice. 
Love  at  first  may  be  an  emotion  that  comes  and 
goes.  Then  it  is  a  fixed  principle,  beaming  out  of 
the  heart  so  as  to  transfigure  the  whole  person,  and 
create  a  new  face  under  the  ugliest  features.  And 
the  aversions  of  hate  or  the  appetencies  of  love 
often  appear  in  the  next  generation,  in  the  transmit- 
ted feuds  of  families  and  nations,  or  in  the  heavenly 
inheritance  of  that  good-will  which  was  the  burden 


*  "  I  ordered  the  artillery  to  be  posted  on  a  hill  near  the  town  and 
overlooking  it,  and  open  its  fire.  Now  ensued  the  most  beautiful  sight 
conceivable." 

"  The  storming  of  was  a  magnificent  spectacle.  What  a 

glorious  feeling  of  elation  took  possession  of  my  soul  at  that  moment."  —  Liv- 
ermore's  War  with  Mexico,  Chap.  XXVI.  —  But  see  the  literature 
of  vr&r  passim. 


ACQUIRED    INSTINCTS.  35 

of  the  angel-song.  .  The  first  two  stages  in  the  nat- 
ural history  of  the  passions,  we  witness  daily  in 
ourselves  or  in  those  about  us,  —  how  evil  pas- 
sions run  down  the  nerves  and  shake  them  out  of 
tune,  till  the  whole  frame,  though  once  like  an  organ 
of  sweet  stops,  will  discourse  nothing  but  j anglings 
and  discords,  —  how  corruption  out  of  the  heart  will 
flood  the  brain  and  darken  its  "  chambers  of  im- 
agery," and  thence  derange  all  the  vital  functions  of 
soul  and  body.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  how  pure 
affections,  passing  into  high,  rational,  and  spiritual 
frames,  transform  the  whole  man  and  create  him 
anew ;  how  benevolence  works  its  changes  from 
within,  and  makes  the  outer  clothing  of  the  spirit  to 
be  radiant  and  white  as  the  light ;  how  faith  lays 
the  soul  to  rest  in  the  arms  of  God ;  how  hope,  from 
its  first  fond  flutterings  at  the  heart,  changes  into  con- 
fidence and  trust,  when  "  wings  at  our  shoulders  seem 
to  play,"  and  bear  us  away  from  care  and  trouble  into 
an  atmosphere  which  is  bracing  and  serene.  He  who 
denies  that  these  opposite  states  of  mind,  after  be- 
coming fixed  and  habitual,  affect  the  natural  tempers 
and  dispositions  of  offspring,  shows  that  the  simplest 
guardians  of  the  nursery  might  teach  him  wisdom. 
Hence  the  path  of  endless  progress  that  opens  up- 
ward into  light,  or  of  endless  deterioration  that 
slopes  downward  into  darkness  and  death. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

TESTIMONY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS. 

"  It  is  not  what  my  hands  hare  done 

That  weighs  my  spirit  down, 
That  casts  a  shadow  o'er  the  sun, 

And  over  earth  a  frown. 
It  is  not  any  heinous  guilt, 

Or  vice  by  men  abhorred ; 
For  fair  the  fame  that  I  have  built, 

A  fair  life's  just  reward,  — 
And  men  would  wonder  if  they  knew 
How  sad  I  feel,  with  sins  so  few. 

Alas !  they  only  see  in  part, 

When  thus  they  judge  the  whole  ; 
They  cannot  look  upon  the  heart, 

They  cannot  read  the  soul. 
But  I  survey  myself  within, 

And  mournfully  I  feel 
How  deep  the  principle  of  sin 

Its  root  may  there  conceal, 
And  spread  its  poison  through  the  frame, 
Without  a  deed  that  men  can  blame." 

HENRY  WARE,  JR. 

"  It  to  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me."  —  ROMANS  vii.  17. 

THERE  is  a  large  class  of  minds,  ranging  through 
all  nations,  sects,  and  ages,  which,  though  differing 
in  their  theologies,  have  a  singular  agreement  as  to 
the  facts  of  consciousness.  They  draw  various  con- 
clusions from  these  facts,  but  they  bear  uniform  tes- 
timony as  to  the  facts  themselves.  The  testimony 


TESTIMONY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS.  37 

is  substantially  this, — that  some  evil  forces  within, 
lying  deeper  than  their  personal  volitions,  or  acquired 
tastes,  and  antedating  all  their  culture  and  habits, 
are  seeking  to  possess  and  to  sway  their  faculties. 
They  give  to  the  individual  the  feeling  of  divided 
consciousness.  And  this  feeling  is  stronger  just  in 
the  degree  that  the  religious  experience  becomes 
more  deep  and  vital.  The  more  the  interior  man  is 
searched  and  laid  open  by  the  word  of  God,  the 
clearer  are  the  demonstrations  of  this  divided  con- 
sciousness ;  and  it  seems  to  the  individual  that  two 
classes  of  powers  are  ranged  in  opposition  and  seek- 
ing for  the  dominion  of  his  nature.  This  conflict, 
perhaps,  did  not  appear  except  under  the  light  of 
Christian  truth  bursting  on  the  soul  in  clearer  splen- 
dor, —  like  the  sun  rising  on  a  field  where  hosts  are 
gathered  and  arrayed  for  battle,  but  which  lay  in 
stillness  on  their  arms  until  the  morning  light  should 
appear.  Those  who  live  a  life  merely  natural,  and 
outwardly  blameless,  yet  who  have  never  brought 
the  most  interior  life  under  the  judgments-  of  the 
eternal  law,  have  no  such  experience  as  we  here 
describe.  But  it  is  conspicuously  displayed  in  the 
lives  of  such  men  as  Luther,  Fenelon,  Taylor,  Bun- 
yan,  Fox,  Edwards,  and  Ware,  and  the  more  so  as 
the  interior  nature  emerged  out  of  dim  twilight  into 
open  day,  where  all  things  appeared,  not  in  mass,  but 
distributed,  and  with  their  shape  and  quality  con- 
fessed. Now  the  question  may  be  raised,  whether 
those  moods  be  healthful  or  morbid,  and  whether  the 
facts  of  consciousness  are  here  rendered  truly ;  but 

4 


38  THE  NATURAL  MAN. 

the  question  will  hardly  fail  of  a  right  answer,  if  we 
remember  that  oftenest  out  of  these  moods  has  come 
a  robust  and  fervid  piety,  oblivious  of  self,  earnest 
for  great  deeds  and  sacrifices,  and  with  words  that 
speak  most  effectively  to  the  condition  of  sinful  men. 
Yea,  what  mind  penetrated  with  religious  ideas  has 
never  been  resolved  into  this  same  double  conscious- 
ness, however  dimly  ?  Has  the  reader  never,  in  the 
stillness  of  meditation  and  earnest  introspection,  had 
revealed  to  him  the  breadth  and  the  purity  of  God's 
law,  shining  down  into  his  soul  as  the  serene  al- 
mighty justice,  and  searching  out  all  that  was  in  op- 
position to  itself?  And  in  that  all-revealing  hour  has 
he  not  been  prompted  to  exclaim,  "  I  am  a  man  of 
unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  among  a  people  of  unclean 
lips,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of 
hosts  "  ?  Has  he  not  then  seen  a  law  in  his  mem- 
bers, warring  against  the  law  that  shines  down  into 
his  mind,  waking  up  the  old  conflict  which  Paul  has 
described  in  such  living  language  ?  —  God's  voice 
calling 'one  way,  and  a  tide  of  inclinations  and  a 
throng  of  fancies  sweeping  the  other  way,  which  will 
not  return  nor  subside  at  his  bidding,  —  opposing 
powers,  impersonating  themselves  in  him  and  call- 
ing and  answering  to  each  other  ?  Then  he  verifies 
anew  the  language  of  Paul,  no  longer  a  paradox,  — 
"  What  I  would,  that  do  I  not,  but  what  I  hate,  that 
I  do."  Some  mighty  power  is  standing  behind  his 
personal  volitions,  and  bending  and  swaying  his  fac- 
ulties at  its  will,  so  that  he  does  not  seem  so  much 
to  act  and  speak  himself,  as  to  be  acted  through  and 


TESTIMONY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS.  39 

to  be  spoken  out  of.  "  It  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but 
sin  that  dwelleth  in  me."  And  what  is  the  meaning 
of  all  this,  unless  it  be  that  this  sea  of  being,  out  of 
which  we  rise  like  bubbles  out  of  some  mighty  deep, 
has  its  under  tides  and  currents,  whose  force  and 
swell  have  increased  from  remote  generations,  and 
they  break  into  our  consciousness,  and  we  tremble 
with  their  motions  and  struggle  against  the  down- 
ward rush  of  the  waves  ? 


CHAPTER   V. 

CHILDHOOD. 

"  Shades  of  the  prison-house  begin  to  close 
Upon  the  growing  boy." 

THERE  are  two  classes  of  qualities  which  appear 
in  infancy  and  early  childhood.  There  is  the  sweet 
smile  of  innocence,  —  the  beautiful  play  of  natural 
affection  as  it  jets  forth  in  a  thousand  fantastic 
shapes ;  natural  sensibility,  clear  and  gushing  as 
spring-waters ;  imaginations  white  as  falling  snow- 
flakes,  and  whose  furniture  is  yet  unsullied  as  that 
of  an  angel's  dream.  Not  that  these  are  the  uniform 
characteristics  of  this  early  age,  but  that  they  are 
very  common,  none  but  a  cynic  will  deny.  In  what 
light  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  elements  of  charac- 
ter and  indications  of  the  real  state  of  man  by  nature, 
is  a  topic  which  we  waive  for  the  present,  as  belong- 
ing to  another  branch  of  our  subject. 

But  to  select  these  as  the  only  characteristics  of 
childhood  were  surely  as  uncandid  as  it  would  be  to 
select  the  opposite  ones  and  ignore  these,  and,  like 
Calvin,  compare  children  with  vipers  and  serpents. 
If,  as  we  have  already  seen,  hereditary  qualities  are 
wrought  into  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  organi- 


CHILDHOOD.  41 

zation  of  offspring,  and  appear  in  the  earliest  form 
and  features  and  make  them  the  effigy  of  themselves, 
then  we  should  expect  to  find  inborn  tendencies  and 
biases  to  evil  among  the  earliest  manifestations. 
And  so  we  do.  Those  beautiful  traits  are  set  with- 
in the  ugly  and  depraved  ones,  and  often  overlaid  by 
them,  so  that  their  beauty  goes  out  for  ever.  That 
anger,  deceit,  irreverence,  stubbornness,  cruelty,  and 
selfishness,  in  many  a  hideous  form,  are  qualities 
which  show  themselves  so  early  and  with  such  entire 
spontaneity  as  proves  them  to  be  innate  and  heredi- 
tary, none,  we  take  it,  but  dreamers  will  deny.  And 
that  they  are  developed  out  of  the  infant  being,  and 
not  put  into  him  by  bad  example,  that  they  appear 
among  the  best  encircling  influences  of  home,  and 
before  example  good  or  bad  could  be  felt  or  under- 
stood, is  a  matter  of  daily  experience.  How  often  is 
it  found  that  a  sweet  and  sunny  spirit  is  enshrined  in 
an  evil  temperament  amid  biases  to  every  wrong, — 
a  rose  that  opens  beneath  overhanging  briers  that 
spring  up  and  choke  it  and  shut  out  the  light  till  it 
dies  away ! 

Even  when  the  first  manifestations  of  infant  life 
are  all  pure  and  lovely,  it  is  no  sufficient  argument 
to  prove  the  absence  of  hereditary  damage  and  dis- 
order. The  human  soul  is  a  germ  whose  unfoldings 
are  to  go  on  through  the  infinite  ages,  and  not  till 
its  development  proceeds  apace  are  all  its  hidden 
tendencies  brought  to  light.  The  blight  and  the 
canker  may  lie  concealed  when  the  first  leaves  dis- 
close nothing  but  health ;  nay,  the  reason  why  the 

4" 


42  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

disease  does  not  at  first  appear  often  is,  that  it  lies 
so  deep.  How  many  are  the  foldings  that  are 
wrapped  about  us!  —  nature  within  nature,  life  with- 
in life,  each  to  wake  up  and  put  forth  its  power,  as 
the  objects  of  temptation  shall  warm  them  into 
activity  and  draw  them  forth  by  their  attractive 
charms.  Around  the  spirit  of  that  little  being  who 
slumbers  in  the  cradle,  there  is  a  sensuous  nature 
which  includes  the  ovaries  of  the  worst  of  vices,  but 
which  do  not  even  give  intimations  of  their  exist- 
ence until  the  dawn  of  manhood.  Passions  are 
there,  coiled  up  and  sleeping,  which  never  yet  have 
stirred,  but  which  one  day  may  strike  their  serpent 
fangs  through  that  tender  bosom.  There  is  the  pos- 
sessory instinct,  early  grasping  for  what  is  not  its 
own,  out  of  which  will  come  avarice  with  its  sordid 
train.  There  is  revenge,  that  thirsts  for  blood.  There 
is  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  that  will  grovel  in  the  sty  of 
sensuality.  There  is  the  pride  of  life,  with  its  empty 
pomps  and  glittering  shams.  There  is  cunning,  that 
will  seek  its  end  by  serpent  windings.  There  is  the 
lust  of  power,  that  will  tread  out  humanity  under  its 
feet  and  "  shut  the  gates  of  mercy  on  mankind." 
All  are  there,  and  if  no  re-creative  power  shall  infuse 
healing  virtue  and  restore  heavenly  order,  these  hid- 
den forces  shall  surely  come  forth  and  be  dramatized 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  ravage  it  in  their  terri- 
ble outgoings.  All  culture  superinduced  from  with- 
out, all  mere  education,  will  have  no  other  effect  than 
to  furnish  these  propensities  with  more  keen  and 
polished  weapons  to  do  their  work.  For  education 


CHILDHOOD.  43 

(e-ducens)  is  the  leading  out  of  these  terrible  armies. 
Left  to  themselves,  they  might  rush  out  in  savage  dis- 
order. A  skilful  hand  may  marshal  them  into  exact 
discipline  and  brilliant  array,  not  for  private  crime, 
but  for  speeding  the  bloody  march  of  an  unchristian 
civilization,  or  the  consolidation  of  its  oppressive 
power.  And  this  is  all. 

From  the  fact  that  the  evil  spiritual  forces  which 
come  down  from  the  past  with  cumulative  strength 
develop  themselves  only  at  successive  stages  of  in- 
dividual history,  that  they  often  lie  concealed  and 
bide  their  time,  it  results  that  men  are  often  impelled 
into  crimes  which  surprise  even  themselves,  when 
some  new  field  of  temptation  awakens  the  latent 
depravity,  and  the  fearful  mystery  opens  up  into  the 
consciousness  for  the  first  time.  Hence,  too,  a  pro- 
phetic eye  sometimes  reads  the  deep  things  of  the 
spirit  and  sees  its  frightful  history  unrolled  while  the 
external  man  seems  fair.  The  prophet  looked  into 
the  face  of  Ahaz,  then  a  blameless  young  man,  and 
turned  away  and  wept.  Visions  of  ravaged  king- 
doms rose  before  him.  All  that  Julius  Cassar  was 
to  be,  was  in  like  manner  open  to  the  eye  of  a 
sagacious  Roman,  when  to  the  common  eye  all  was 
patriotism  and  generosity.  "Take  care!  there  is 
many  a  tyrant  and  usurper  in  the  person  of  that 
young  man." 

Those  transmissive  qualities  of  the  human  being 
which  at  first  are  latent,  and  whose  activities  are 
prospective,  are  revealed,  or  at  least  illustrated,  in 
the  physical  man,  which  is  the  effigy  of  the  moral. 


44  THE  NATURAL  MAN. 

It  is  a  fact  too  familiar  to  be  controverted,  that  the 
first  years  of  infancy  and  childhood  open  ofttimes 
with  the  bloom  of  health  and  the  promise  of  a  vig- 
orous manhood.  But  by  and  by  the  hereditary 
taint  appears.  The  growth  of  the  body  unfolds  the 
lurking  malady,  and  the  death  wrapped  up  in  a  show 
of  life  appears.  So  families,  and  even  tribes,  perish 
from  the  earth,  under  the  cumulative  corruption 
which  the  stream  of  being  in  that  direction  bears 
along.  The  years  of  the  generations  grow  less  and 
less.  They  dwindle  to  a  span,  and  then  to  nothing. 
They  fail  from  the  ranks  of  humanity,  and  leave 
only  their  names  and  their  graves.  And  the  man 
who  should  reason  from  first  appearances  in  the  cra- 
dle or  the  nursery  against  this  stern  law  of  human 
descent,  would  reason  just  as  soundly  as  he  who 
should  deny  the  spiritual  death  included  within  the 
too  transparent  disguises  of  infantile  innocence  and 
beauty.  For  there  are  many  innate  propensities 
which  do  not  show  themselves  until  the  carnal  na- 
ture unfolds  and  warms  them  into  conscious  exist- 
ence. The  babe  shows  not  the  diseased  appetite 
of  drunken  progenitors,  but  the  surroundings  of 
temptation  may  stir  it  up  in  the  man.  Nay,  it  may 
assert  itself  with  perfect  spontaneity,  and  with  no 
external  excitements.  There  are  men  of  bland  and 
gentle  manners  in  private  life,  who  will  say,  that  on 
the  field  of  battle,  with  the  measured  march  of  num- 
bers, the  martial  music,  and  the  presence  of  a  foe,  no 
sight  is  so  lovely  as  that  of  falling  and  bleeding 
ranks,  no  work  so  sweet  and  genial  as  that  of  mur- 


CHILDHOOD.  45 

der.  The  young  of  the  tiger,  it  is  said,  may  be  do- 
mesticated, and  for  a  while  made  mild  and  docile ; 
but  the  first  taste  of  blood  will  rouse  all  his  native 
instincts ;  and  his  eye  turns  to  fire,  and  he  bounds  in 
fury  to  the  jungles! 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  DEATH.. 

"  Fair  daffodils  !  we  weep  to  see 
You  haste  away  so  soon ; 
As  yet  the  early  rising  sun 
lias  not  attained  its  noon. 

Stay,  stay, 
Until  the  hasting  day 

Has  run, 

But  to  the  even-song, 
And,  having  prayed  together,  we 
Will  go  with  you  along. 

"  We  have  short  tune  to  stay  as  you  ; 
We  have  as  short  a  spring  ; 
As  quick  a  growth  to  meet  decay 
As  you  or  any  thing. 

We  die 
As  your  hours  do,  and  dry 

Away, 

Like  to  the  summer's  rain, 
Or  like  the  pearls  of  morning's  dew, 
Ne'er  to  be  found  again."  —  HKBMCK. 

DEATH  is  described  in  all  languages  as  a  monster 
and  anomaly  in  the  universe.  It  is  the  kingly  ter- 
ror, the  sum  of  all  the  agonies  which  afflict  human 
nature.  Where  is  the  path  on  which  its  pale  shad- 
ow hath  not  rested  ?  Who  does  not  remember  the 
time  when  the  stern  fact  of  mortality  broke  in  upon 
the  gay  fancies  of  his  childhood,  as  the  one  giant 


THE    MYSTERY   OF    DEATH.  47 

sorrow  for  which  there  was  no  consolation.  It 
would  seem,  sometimes,  from  the  prevailing  tone  of 
our  religious  literature,  as  if  the  principal  office  of 
Christianity  were  to  pour  light  and  consolation  over 
this  one  province  of  calamity.  One  would  think, 
from  much  of  our  preaching,  that  the  chief  motive 
to  religion  was  the  fright  that  comes  from  this 
haunting  spectre,  whose  approach  must  be  made 
the  dread  of  all  our  pleasant  places.  It  is  the  "  last 
enemy."  It  is  the  "cup  of  trembling."  It  is  the 
"  ultima  lima  rerum"  —  the  dread  boundary  of  joy- 
ous existence. 

This  calamity  is  peculiar  to  man.  The  inferior 
tribes  know  nothing  of  it.  They  obey  the  laws  of 
their  life,  and  so  they  have  no  dread  of  what  is  to 
come.  The  lamb  gambols  alike  through  the  green 
pastures  or  to  the  place  of  slaughter.  Up  to  the 
last  flutter  of  her  wings,  the  bird  ceases  not  to  trill 
her  matins  upon  the  air.  But  the  only  immortal 
being  upon  the  earth  lives  in  dread  of  death.  The 
only  being  to  whom  death  is  an  impossibility,  fears 
every  day  that  it  will  come.  And  if  we  analyze  the 
nature  of  this  fear,  and  explore  the  cause  of  it,  we 
shall  not  be  at  all  certain  that  it  will  not  follow  the 
mere  natural  man  into  a  future  life,  and  have  an  im- 
portant part  in  its  retributions.  Man  fears  death  only 
because  he  has  lost  conscious  communion  with  Him 
in  whom  alone  is  immortality.  In  so  far  as  we  pre- 
serve our  relation  to  Him  who  is  the  soul  of  our  soul 
and  the  life  of  our  life,  our  spirits  wear  the  bloom  of 
everlasting  youth,  and  no  more  than  the  joyous 


48  THE    NATURAL   MAN. 

child  do  we  dream  of  consumption  and  decay. 
When  this  is  lost,  no  matter  in  what  stage  of  our 
being,  whether  in  this  life  or  another,  we  feel  our 
weakness,  we  seem  to  lie  at  the  mercy  of  change, 
and  to  hang  over  the  abysses  of  annihilation. 

And  how  mysterious  are  the  shapes  in  which  the 
spoiler  appears !  He  comes  not  like  an  angel  of 
peace,  but  seizes  his  victim  as  his  prey.  He  comes 
in  a  grisly  train  of  diseases  and  sufferings,  the  seeds 
of  which  the  infant  brings  with  him  into  the  world. 
Yes,  the  infant  that  never  knew  sin  has  the  tender 
fibres  of  his  frame  torn  by  the  destroyer,  and  the 
death-agonies  are  received  with  the  very  boon  of  ex- 
istence. Womanhood  fades  away  in  its  beautiful 
prime,  before  its  swift  day  has  "run  to  the  even- 
song," and  manhood  fails  amid  the  heat  and  burden 
of  the  noontide  hour,  and  the  impress  of  suffering  is 
left  upon  its  glorious  brow.  Not  one  fourth  of  the 
race  attain  to  the  period  of  natural  decay.  One 
half,  it  is  computed,  die  during  the  periods  of  infan- 
cy and  childhood. 

Can  it  be  said  that  a  human  nature  which  has  all 
this  inheritance  of  disease,  suffering,  and  mortality, 
has  the  soundness  of  its  primal  state,  and  that  no 
taint  has  fallen  upon  it?  We  do  not  argue  that 
mortality  is  the  effect  of  sin,  nor  do  we  believe  that 
the  primitive  man  would  never  have  died  if  he  had 
never  transgressed.  But  we  do  argue  that  death 
could  never  become  this  monster  in  the  universe, 
could  never  make  this  train  of  diseases  and,  agonies 
the  grim  heralds  of  his  presence,  could  never  make 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   DEATH.  49 

the  human  frame  a  rack  of  torture  and  turn  its  vital 
streams  into  currents  of  fire,  unless  something  had 
perverted  the  fundamental  laws  of  our  being.  We 
are  surely  treading  here  amid  the  ruins  of  a  disor- 
dered and  a  broken  nature.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
fact  of  mortal  change,  which  is  merely  outward  and 
phenomenal,  the  flux  and  reflux  of  being  on  its 
course  to  the  highest  development  of  life,  —  there  is 
nothing  in  this  fact  that  it  should  be  draperied  about 
with  mourning  in  our  homes  and  churches.  We 
look  out  at  this  moment  into  the  natural  world,  and 
we  there  see  the  processes  of  death  going  on  under 
very  different  conditions.  There  is  something  sooth- 
ing beyond  description,  when  nature  puts  on  her 
death-robes,  something  which  disposes  to  calm  and 
holy  musings.  How  peacefully  does  it  come  over 
the  landscape,  and  what  brilliancy  does  it  fling  upon 
the  woods  of  autumn !  And  as  we  look  along  the 
western  horizon,  where  "  parting  day  dies  like  a  dol- 
phin "  whom  every  ebb  of  life  imbues  with  a  fresh 
glory,  what  a  contrast  have  we  in  the  aspect  with 
which  it  comes  to  nature  and  to  man !  We  do  not 
put  these  analogies  in  an  argumentative  way,  any 
farther  than  to  suggest  what  death  might  be,  and 
what  it  would  be  to  an  untainted  human  nature. 
Tnis  flesh  which  we  wear  is  the  foliage  of  an  unseen 
and  an  immortal  life,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
should  not  fall  away  in  its  season,  still  and  peaceful 
as  autumn  leaves,  that  this  interior  life  may  flower 
forth  anew  in  the  glories  of  unending  spring.  There 
is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  steal  on  the  decay- 

5 


50  THE   NATURAL    MAN. 

ing  senses  without  a  pang,  so  that  while  the  mortal 
fades  away,  the  immortal  appears,  one  waxing  as 
the  other  is  waning,  every  entrance  into  the  spirit- 
world  being  with  a  train  of  light  lingering  on  the 
mind,  sweet  and  mellow  as  that  which  rests  on  the 
hills  at  eventide. 

But  two  things  there  are  which  barb  the  sting  of 
death.  There  is  this  inheritance  of  disease  that  we 
speak  of,  —  of  organizations  with  broken  laws  and 
the  earnest  of  swift  decay.  Hence  death  is  not  the 
unclothing  of  the  spirit,  but  the  rending  away  of  its 
garment  by  violence.  But  more  than  this ;  man  be- 
comes buried  in  sense  and  matter,  and  this  world  be- 
comes all  in  all.  This  world  is  the  substance,  while 
the  spirit-world  is  the  shadow.  This  is  real,  while 
that  is  spectral.  Therefore  to  leave  the  solid  earth 
is  to  tread  away  into  nothing,  and  drop  into  the  cold 
depths  of  the  night,  while  on  the  ear  from  all  that 
are  loved  and  loving  are  falling  everlasting  farewells. 
On  account  of  this  seeming  annihilation,  nature 
sends  up  a  deep  arid  bitter  cry.  Or  perhaps  one 
sees  before  him  the  shadow-land  which  tradition  has 
peopled  with  terrors,  and  where  only  phantoms  are 
gliding  past. 

To  a  human  nature  in  the  freshness  and  purity  of 
its  morning  prime,  when  celestial  beings  stood  en 
the  confines  of  both  worlds  and  sang  "  strains  suita- 
ble for  both,"  the  eye  of  faith  would  be  open  and 
clear ;  the  spirit-realm  would  be  the  substance,  while 
this  would  be  the  shadow;  from  infancy  to  age  hu- 
man beings  would  live  in  conscious  fellowship  with 


THE    MYSTERY    OF    DEATH.  51 

the  sweet  societies  of  the  blest ;  death  would  come 
in  his  season,  not  to  tear  them  away,  but  to  lift  a 
veil  from  their  eyes,  and  disclose  to  them  that  sphere 
which  already  had  sent  its  peace  into  their  hearts 
and  left  its  brightness  on  their  souls. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  "ADAM"  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

PAUL,  in  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  has  a  passage 
which  has  figured  largely  in  our  theologies,  and  on 
account  of  its  deep  philosophical  import  we  will  cite 
it  at  length,  in  as  literal  a  rendering  as  it  will  bear. 

"  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon 
all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned.  —  (For  until  the 
law,  sin  was  in  the  world.  But  sin  is  not  imputed 
where  there  is  no  law.  Nevertheless,  death  reigned 
from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  those  that  had  not 
sinned  after  the  likeness  of  Adam's  transgression,  who 
is  the  type  of  him  that  was  to  come.  Yet  the  free 
gift  again  is  not  so  as  is  the  offence.  For  if  through 
the  offence  of  one  the  many  be  dead,  much  more  the 
grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  which  is  through  the  grace 
of  one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  to  the 
many.  Neither  is  the  gift  so  as  it  was  by  one  who 
sinned.  For  the  judgment  was  of  one  offence  to 
condemnation,  but  the  free  gift  is  of  many  offences 
to  justification.  For  if  by  the  offence  of  one,  death 
reigned  by  one,  much  more  they  who  receive  the 
abounding  grace  and  gift  of  justification  shall  reign 


THE  "ADAM"  OF  ST.  PAUL.  53 

in  life  by  one  Jesus  Christ.)  —  Therefore,  as  by  the 
offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  unto 
condemnation,  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one 
the  gift  came  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life. 
For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  the  many  were 
made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  the 
many  be  made  righteous.  Moreover,  the  law  entered 
that  the  offence  might  abound.  But  where  sin 
abounded,  grace  did  superabound ;  that  as  sin  hath 
reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign,  through 
righteousness,  unto  eternal  life,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord." 

The  Apostle's  style  is  so  exceedingly  concise,  that 
we  must  paraphrase  his  language  a  little  in  order  to 
make  it  clear.  He  is  arguing  with  a  supposed  Jew- 
ish objector;  his  style  is  interlocutory,  and  if  the 
ellipses  were  supplied,  his  argument  would  proceed 
thus : — 

OBJECTOR. 

The  blessings  of  the  true  religion  are  the  peculiar 
inheritance  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  and  in  the 
keeping  of  the  Jewish  Church  ;  how,  then,  can  Chris- 
tianity be  true,  which  breaks  down  sacred  distinc- 
tions, and  takes  every  body  into  its  favor  ? 

PAUL. 

I  reply  to  that,  that  a  true  religion  has  for  its  ob- 
ject to  bring  a  remedy  for  sin  and  make  men  holy, 
and  the  remedy  must  be  coextensive  with  the  evil. 
Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  the  world,  and 


54  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

death  by  sin,  and  so  death  hath  passed  upon  ALL 
MEN,  for  that  ALL  have  sinned.  As  sin  was  in  the 
world  before  the  Jewish  law,  so,  therefore 

OBJECTOR. 

Pause.  Sin  is  not  imputed  where  there  is  no 
law.  How  can  there  be  transgression  where  there 
is  no  command  to  be  transgressed  ? 

PAUL. 

By  the  admission  of  your  own  Rabbins,  death  is 
the  effect  of  sin.  But  does  nobody  die  but  Jews  ? 
Were  men  immortal  till  the  Jewish  law  was  given  ? 
Death  did  reign  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over 
those  who  had  not,  like  Adam,  transgressed  any  posi- 
tive command.  And  this  Adam  represents  the  Mes- 
siah in  a  most  important  particular,  —  that  the  uni- 
versality of  the  evil  brought  in  by  the  one  corre- 
sponds to  the  universality  of  the  blessing  offered  by 
the  other.  Yea,  the  blessing  transcends  the  evil, 
and  in  that  respect  they  are  unlike.  For  if  through 
the  offence  of  one  the  many  be  dead,  much  more 
the  grace  of  God  and  the  gift  which  is  through  the 
grace  of  one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  have  abounded  to  the 
many.  The  grace  not  only  remedies  the  evil,  but 
gives  a  surplus  of  blessing  beside.  And  in  another 
respect  the  gift  is  not  like  the  bane.  For  the  judg- 
ment came  through  one  offence  to  condemnation, 
but  the  free  gift  is  of  many  offences  to  justification. 
The  pardon  is  offered,  not  only  to  that  one  sin  of 
Adam,  but  to  all  the  sins  that  followed  after.  For  if 


THE   "  ADAM  "    OF    ST.    PAUL.  55 

by  the  offence  of  one,  death  reigned  by  one,  much 
more  they  who  receive  the  abounding  grace  and  gift 
of  justification  shall  reign  in  life  by  one,  Jesus 
.Christ.  Therefore,  as  I  was  first  saying,  as  by  the 
offence  of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men  unto 
condemnation,  so,  since  the  remedy  is  coextensive 
with  it,  the  free-given  gospel  comes  to  all  men 
unto  justification  of  life.  For  as  by  one  man's 
disobedience  the  many  were  made  sinners,  so  by 
the  obedience  of  one  shall  the  many  be  made 
righteous. 

OBJECTOR. 

Admitting  all  you  say,  what  need  of  the  gospel  ? 
Make  the  law  universal,  for  that  makes  men  right- 
eous. 

PAUL. 

Just  the  contrary  !  The  effect  of  the  law  was  that 
sin  abounded  more,  for  it  revealed  a  perfect  rule,  but 
did  not  supply  the  grace  to  bring  men  up  to  its  re- 
quirements. Not  so  of  the  gospel,  for  under  that, 
where  sin  abounds,  grace  doth  superabound;  that 
as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might 
grace  reign,  through  righteousness,  unto  eternal  life, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

1.  In  what  way  physical  death  entered  the  world 
by  sin,  will  be  quite  evident  from  the  way  that 
Christianity  proposes  to  abolish  it  The  evil  will 
be  apparent  from  the  nature  of  the  remedy;  the  state 


56  THE   NATURAL    MAN. 

from  which  man  fell,  from  the  state  to  which  he  is 
to  be  restored.  Christianity  does  not  propose  to  do 
away  the  fact  of  man's  transition  from  the  natural 
to  the  spiritual  world,  but  rather  to  do  away  with- 
all  the  death-like  environments  which  it  now  has. 
Those  being  removed,  death  is  growth  ;  the  growth 
of  man  into  the  angel,  amid  the  falling  away  of  the 
hindrances  and  clogs  of  the  inmost,  the  immortal 
life.  It  proposes  to  restore  his  nature  to  its  primal 
order,  to  bring  a  fair  and  goodly  creation  out  of  its 
chaos,  and  then  the  inclosed  immortal  will  break 
away  from  its  integuments,  not  by  the  agencies 
of  disease,  but  of  superabundant  life  unfolding 
from  within  outward,  casting  off  the  natural  body 
and  assuming  the  spiritual,  just  as  the  covering  of 
the  worm  falls  away  that  the  insect  may  rise  with 
spangled  wings  into  the  air.  This  is  not  death, 
but  health  and  life  for  ever  enlarging.  So  that  the 
death  which  Adam  introduced  was  not  the  fact  of 
human  mortality,  but  the  dismal  drapery  thrown 
about  it. 

2.  It  is  obvious  to  observe,  on  a  careful  analysis  of 
the  Pauline  philosophy,  how  much  more  than  his 
proper  share  of  the  evil  brought  upon  the  world,  our 
common  ancestor  has  been  made  to  bear.  Was 
ever  the  memory  of  man  so  wronged  and  abused  by 
his  children !  So  far  from  laying  off  upon  him  the 
whole  business  of  man's  fall,  Paul  does  no  more 
than  designate  how  the  work  began,  and  how  sin 
was  first  introduced.  His  successors  kept  adding  to 
the  work  which  he  only  commenced,  and  death 


THE  "ADAM"  OF  ST.  PAUL.  57 

passed  upon  all  men,  not  because  Adam  sinned  for 
them  vicariously,  but  in  that  ALL  HAVE  SINNED.  He 
sinned,  and  there,  alas !  began  the  work  of  the  deg- 
radation of  his  species;  the  balance  between  good 
and  evil  began  to  dip  the  wrong  way,  his  successors 
kept  adding  to  the  weight,  sin  became  more  facile 
with  every  generation,  till  the  scale  came  heavily 
down.  And  this  is  THE  FALL  OF  MAN. 

3.  Hence  the  Adam  of  St.  Paul  is  not  merely  an 
historical  person.  He  is  only  so  treated  in  the  fore- 
going extract,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  antithesis 
between  him  and  Christ.  Not  so  when  he  applies 
his  doctrine  and  appeals  to  individual  experience! 
There  it  is  the  Adam  of  consciousness.  It  is  the 
"  old  man,"  which  is  to  be  "  crucified  "  within  us,  or 
which  is  to  be  put  off  as  corrupt,  in  contrast  with 
the  new  man,  which  is  the  ingenerated  and  indwell- 
ing Christ.*  So  then  the  Adam  of  St.  Paul  in  this 
connection  is  a  corrupt  past,  which  has  become  im- 
manent in  the  present.  It  is  an  inherited,  disordered 
nature,  impersonated  in  each  individual.  With 
primitive  man  began  the  descending  series,  and  it 
kept  on  till  the  time  of  Christ.  Then  the  ascending 
series  began,  and  it  will  keep  on  till  it  comes  up  to 
the  level  of  that  height  where  began  the  march  of 
humanity.  Or  to  seek  an  image  which  perhaps  will 
give  us  at  once  the  Apostle's  unclouded  meaning : 
He  regards  the  race  in  its  totality,  as  an  organic 
whole,  as  making  one  orb  of  being.  With  the  first 

*  Bom.  vi.  6  ;  Eph.  iv.  22  ;  Col.  iii.  9. 


58  THE   NATURAL   MAN. 

man's  sin  it  began  to  dip  into  darkness,  and  the  line 
of  shade  encroached  upon  it  till  it  hung  in  disastrous 
eclipse.  With  Christ  its  emergence  began,  and  it 
will  continue  till  it  rolls  in  complete  glory  along  the 
latest  ages. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  LAW  OF  DESCENT  BENEFICENT. 

"  Xo  one  generation  linking  with  the  other,  men  would  become  little  better  than 
the  flies  of  a  summer."  —  BURKE. 

WE  suppose  our  argument  will  not  be  regarded  as 
complete,  unless  we  vindicate  the  justice  and  benefi- 
cence of  the  law  of  human  descent,  which  we  have 
endeavored  to  illustrate  in  the  preceding  pages.  It 
will  be  said,  that  it  does  not  comport  with  our  no- 
tions of  a  just  creator  thus  to  burden  his  children 
with  hereditary  evil;  that,  after  all,  it  is  punishing 
the  sons  for  the  crimes  of  their  ancestors,  and  is 
thus  open  to  the  objections  to  which  the  old  dogma 
of  original  sin  lies  exposed. 

A  first  and  obvious  answer  to  all  such  reasoning 
is,  that  the  objection  is  merely  theoretic.  It  argues 
from  our  notions  of  God  to  what  we  think  the  facts 
ought  to  be,  and  thus  sets  at  naught  the  first  princi- 
ples of  induction.  Better  accept  the  facts  as  they 
are,  as  they  lie  all  about  us  and  within  us.  The 
problem  of  ages  has  been  to  reconcile  the  existence 
of  evil  with  the  Divine  attributes ;  and  evil  that 
comes  by  transmission  is  no  more  irreconcilable 
with  those  attributes,  than  the  evil  that  forms  the 


60  THE    NATURAL   MAN. 

sharp  environment  of  our  condition  and  crushes 
us  from  without.  Perhaps  the  evil  that  is  transmis- 
sive  and  comes  from  within  is  more  consistent  with 
our  notions  of  the  Divine  mercy,  since  it  is  more 
subject  to  our  personal  volition  and  control.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  it  is  our  wisdom  to  learn  our  state  pre- 
cisely as  it  is,  to  know  all  the  difficulties  that  beset 
us,  and  then  we  shall  turn  with  more  enlightened 
vision  to  the  means  of  our  deliverance. 

But  we  go  further  than  all  this.  We  vindicate 
the  law  of  transmissive  qualities  and  proclivities  as 
essential  to  the  permanence  and  the  very  existence 
of  society.  Unless  the  peculiar  genius  and  disposi- 
tions of  parents  were  produced  anew  in  their  descend- 
ants, through  successive  generations,  what  would 
humanity  present  but  a  mass  of  heterogeneous  and 
discordant  atoms  ?  Societies,  states,  and  nations 
could  not  be  formed  out  of  them  and  perpetuated. 
Society  is  the  collective  man,  having  a  unity  of  its 
own,  existing  not  only  in  a  given  locality,  but 
through  indefinite  periods  of  time ;  having,  like  the 
individual,  a  development  of  its  powers  from  youth 
to  maturity  and  age ;  having  a  work  to  do  on  the 
earth  ;  having  schemes  of  improvement  to  be  formed 
and  matured  through  a  series  of  generations.  In 
order  to  this,  the  peculiar  loves,  tastes,  and  aptitudes 
of  the  fathers  must  ever  be  produced  anew;  the 
past  must  ever  live  in  the  present ;  the  spirit  of  an- 
cestry must  go  down  in  unbroken  line  to  a  remote 
posterity.  The  children  cherish  the  memory  of  the 
fathers,  inherit  their  life,  and  take  up  the  work  they 


THE    LAW   OF   DESCENT   BENEFICENT.  61 

left  to  make  it  over  in  turn  to  a  new  generation. 
Thus,  while  the  individual  is  weak,  society  is  strong. 
The  individual  is  ephemeral,  but  society  is  immortal. 
The  individual  can  do  comparatively  nothing;  soci- 
ety accomplishes  works  of  skill  and  grandeur  which 
are  the  wonder  and  the  charm  of  ages.  But  suppose 
this  law  of  descent  were  abolished.  Let  the  fathers 
have  no  guaranty  that  they  shall  live  again  in  the 
children.  Let  every  man  come  into  being  with  the 
thread  of  history  cut  from  behind  him,  commencing 
an  existence  original  and  de  novo,  without  the  pecu- 
liar loves  and  aptitudes  of  his  ancestry  or  his  tribe, 
and  society  at  once  is  resolved  into  a  wretched  indi- 
vidualism, with  which  all  progress  must  stop  for  ever; 
and  all  the  accumulations  of  past  wisdom  and  expe- 
rience must  be  lost  in  a  hopeless  and  endless  chaos. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  the  transmitted  tastes  and  ten- 
dencies of  the  Pilgrim  were  to  cease  with  the  pres- 
ent generation  in  New  England,  and  the  next  gener- 
ation were  to  come  upon  the  stage,  not  with  the  in- 
born conatus  of  ancestry,  but  each  individual  with 
his  own  original  proclivities,  like  Frenchmen,  China- 
men, or  promiscuously  what  you  please.  The  past 
two  hundred  years  would  be  lost  to  the  future,  and 
the  land  would  sink,  as  by  a  stroke,  into  primitive 
barbarism.  Laws  would  only  be  formed  for  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  present  hour.  Or  rather,  since  laws 
are  the  collective  will  of  a  homogeneous  population, 
law  and  statesmanship  would  cease  alike  for  ever. 

The  law  of  descent  in  its  beneficent   operations 
is  the  grand  principle  of  organization  by  which  hu- 


62  t     THE   NATURAL   MAN. 

inanity  rises  out  of  barbarism  into  its  loveliest  forms 
of 'life  and  beauty.  Around  this  are  formed,  first 
families,  then  states  and  empires,  then  races,  then  a 
humanity  full  and  complete,  organism  within  or- 
ganism, with  all  their  interdependences  and  inter- 
actions, each  homogeneous  in  itself,  and  operating 
for  the  good  of  all,  forming  together  a  human  race 
that  develops  all  the  forces  of  human  nature,  and 
reflects  in  every  possible  way  the  charms  and  glo- 
ries of  the  Divine.  Such  may  it  one  day  become. 
And  the  law  of  descent  is  an  ever-recurring  security 
that  society  shall  not  be  subject  to  violent  and  de- 
structive changes.  Like  the  individual,  its  improve- 
ment and  renovation  shall  not  break  up  the  continu- 
ity of  its  being.  Even  if  it  be  on  a  course  of  de- 
terioration, it  shall  decline  and  be  dissolved  with  the 
least  possible  of  individual  suffering  and  ruin.  But 
let  that  law  cease  by  which  generation  links  to 
generation,  without  which  there  is  no  hearty  love 
and  reverence  of  ancestry,  without  which  the  fa- 
thers cannot  live  in  the  future  nor  the  children  in 
the  past,  and  society,  if  it  could  exist  at  all,  would 
be  always  in  a  whirl  of  revolution.  Every  reform 
would  be  a  destruction  and  a  re-creation  out  of  ruin, 
if,  indeed,  there  could  be  enough  of  elective  affinity 
among  the  chaotic  atoms  for  any  reconstruction  to 
become  possible.  Every  important  change  would  be 
by  dissolving  the  fabric  into  "  the  dust  and  powder 
of  individuality." 

The  law,  then,  by  which  dispositions,  good  or  bad, 
become  transmissive,  is  a  wise  and.  beneficent  law, 


THE   LAW   OF    DESCENT    BENEFICENT.  63 

essential  to  the  existence  of  the  collective  and  social 
man.  But,  like  all  the  laws  of  creation  and  provi- 
dence, it  has  necessarily  a  twofold  operation.  On 
pure  and  holy  natures  it  produces  ever  new  accu- 
mulations of  blessing.  On  natures  whose  laws  are 
perverted,  it  produces  suffering ;  but  the  suffering  is 
necessary  and  incidental,  to  be  controlled  and  over- 
ruled for  abounding  good  to  those  who  seek  to  be 
benefited  thereby.  The  same  providence  seeks  our 
final  happiness  and  regeneration  alike  in  the  evil  that 
lies  around  us  and  in  the  evil  that  follows  us  from 
behind.  Whether  circumjacent  or  hereditary,  it  is 
subject  to  that  law  of  optimism  which  seeks  the 
highest  good  of  the  universe  and  of  every  individ- 
ual that  lives  within  it  It  may  be  demanded,  per- 
haps, Why  is  not  the  good  transmissive  without  the 
evil  ?  As  if  the  evil  stood  apart  in  tangible  shape, 
without  interblending  with  our  whole  being,  and 
entering  essentially  into  the  complexion  of  all  that 
we  call  character.  There  is  no  man  who  is  one  half 
good  and  the  other  half  bad.  The  good  and  the  evil 
modify  and  interpenetrate  each  other  in  endless  com- 
binations, and  if  one  is  transmitted,  the  other  must 
be.  The  law  of  progression  and  the  law  of  deterio- 
ration are  one  and  the  same  principle  operating 
under  different  conditions.  That  man  is  wise,  who, 
untrammelled  by  baseless  theories,  how  much  soev- 
er they  may  please  his  fancies,  shall  rightly  appre- 
hend his  own  interior  state,  and  shall  be  so  trained 
and  disciplined,  both  by  the  evil  within  and  the  evil 
without,  that  he  shall  be  among  that  number  at  last 


64  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

who    come    out    of   great    tribulation,   with    robes 
"  washed  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb." 


"We  rest  here  in  the  third  general  theory  of  man 
which  we  announced,  —  that  transmitted  dispositions 
and  proclivities  to  evil,  coming  down  a  line  of  tainted 
ancestry,  and  gathering  strength  and  volume  the  far- 
ther they  descend,  is  a  universal  law  of  human  de- 
scent. Objections,  doubtless,  may  still  be  raised,  such 
as  that  every  soul  is  a  fresh  creation  of  God,  and  is 
therefore  pure.  Or,  again,  that  the  tide  of  corruption 
that  comes  from  behind  us  and  sweeps  us  away,  de- 
stroys our  moral  responsibility.  The  first  objection 
we  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  entertain.  It  is 
fanciful  and  vague,  and  reasons  not  from  facts  that 
we  know,  but  claims  to  set  those  facts  aside  from 
some  imaginary  psychology.  To  the  other  objection 
we  are  sufficiently  sensitive,  and  we  grant  that  it 
might  be  valid  if  the  foregoing  argument  claimed  to 
give  the  whole  account  of  man.  But  it  does  not : 
and  this  objection  will  disappear  in  the  light  of  any 
rational  and  faithful  delineation  of  man's  spiritual 
nature  and  capacities.  We  have  described  the  dis- 
ease, for  it  behooves  us  to  know  the  worst,  though 
it  lead  us  among  ruins  that  are  mournful.  We  turn 
now  to  views  that  are  auspicious  and  cheering. 


PART    II. 


THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 


There  is  in  heaven  a  light  whose  goodly  shine 

Makes  the  Creator  visible  to  all 

Created,  that  in  seeing  him  alone 

Have  peace ;  and  in  its  circuit  spreads  so  far, 

That  the  circumference,  with  enlarging  zone, 

Doth  girdle  in  the  worlds."  —  CART'S  DANTB. 

"  The  SPEECH  OP  GOD  which  produces  the  works  of  creation  is  that 
immutable  REASON  from  which  they  flow,  and  by  which  they  are  per- 
fected,—  not  an  evanescent  voice  merely,  but  a  living  energy,  reaching 
to  the  farthest  extremities  of  nature  and  the  most  distant  ages.  In  this 
manner  God  speaks  to  his  holy  angels,  but  to  them  audibly  :  to  us  oth- 
erwise, on  account  of  our  grosser  apprehension.  But  when  we  perceive 
through  our  internal  ears  some  faint  notices  of  this  Divine  Speech,  we 
approach  the  angels."  — AUGUSTINE,  DE  Civ.  DEI,  Lib.  XVI.  cap.  6. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

"  That  which  we  find  in  ourselves  is  the  substance  and  the  life  of  all  our  knowledge. 
Without  this  latent  presence  of  the  I  AM,  all  modes  of  existence  in  the  external  world 
would  flit  before  us  as  colored  shadows,  with  no  greater  depth,  root,  or  fixture  than 
the  image  of  the  rock  hath  in  a  gliding  stream,  or  the  rainbow  hi  a  fast-sailing  rain- 
storm. The  human  mind  is  the  compass,  hi  which  the  laws  and  actuations  of  all 
outward  essences  are  revealed  as  the  dips  and  declinations."  —  COLERIDGE. 

THE  spiritual  nature  implies  two  things.  A  spir- 
itual world  which  exists  out  of  man,  and  a  faculty 
in  him  to  put  him  in  connection  with  that  world,  and 
apprehend  its  objects.  It  implies  the  adaptation  of 
one  to  the  other.  The  physical  nature  includes  the 
faculties  of  sensation :  but  the  faculties  of  sensation 
imply  their  objects,  —  the  world  of  sights  and  sounds 
and  fragrance ;  of  skies,  fields,  and  waters  ;  a  world 
which  puts  the  physical  nature  in  connection  with 
itself,  and  unfolds  all  the  sensuous  powers.  Even  so 
there  is  the  same  correlative  fitness  of  the  spiritual 
man  to  a  spiritual  world,  or  else  the  term  spiritual 
nature,  as  applied  to  human  beings,  would  be  a  term 
without  a  meaning. 

Let  us  now  approach  the  subject  of  the  Divine 
nature  so  far  forth  as  to  deduce  the  doctrine  of  Di- 
vine influence.  There  are  two  sources  of  evidence 


68  THE    SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

that  lie  open  to  us  whereby  this  doctrine  may  come 
clear  arid  living  to  our  minds.  There  is  a  sure  and 
safe  analogy,  and  there  are  the  vivid  descriptions 
of  revelation. 

Man  is  created  in  the  image  of  God,  and  so  in 
man  the  Creator  has  abridged  and  copied  out  his 
own  attributes.  Were  it  not  so,  we  could  have  no 
communion  with  the  Eternal  Father,  any  more  than 
the  beasts  of  the  field  or  the  clods  of  the  valley.  We 
could  not  even  form  any  conception  of  the  Divine 
nature,  for  we  could  get  no  ideas  answering  to  the 
terms  which  describe  it,  and  God  would  be  unrevealed 
in  the  human  and  finite  images  which  set  him 
forth.  For  instance,  if  there  be  a  trinity  in  God,  there 
would  also  be  a  trinity  in  man,  that  likeness  which  a 
pencil  of  rays  out  of  his  own  nature  has  made  of 
itself  and  projected  into  time.  And  just  so  far  as  it 
fails  of  realization  in  the  likeness  and  the  copy  will 
the  words  that  describe  it  be  words  and  nothing 
more.  And  so  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  man  must  we 
find  the  analogy  that  sets  forth  its  nature,  else  the 
terms  that  describe  it  will  be  sounds  that  float  idle 
upon  the  air. 

We  describe  the  human  being  from  two  points  of 
view;  —  man  as  he  is,  and  man  as  he  is  manifested  in 
his  doings; — man  in  his  own  person,  and  man  in  the 
spirit  that  is  breathed  out  of  it;  in  his  intrinsic  nature 
and  in  its  daily  and  hourly  outgoings;  in  his  essen- 
tial being,  and  in  the  functions  it  performs  in  the 
economy  of  life;  in  the  powers  that  lie  within  him, 
and  in  the  influence  that  goes  out  of  him,  and  creates 


THE    HOLY   SPIRIT.  69 

the  moral  atmosphere,  the  insphering  life  that  affects 
all  things  that  lie  within  it.  There  are  those  whose 
persons  we  have  never  looked  upon,  but  whose  influ- 
ence abides  with  us,  transforming  our  characters,  and 
permeating  all  our  trains  of  thought  and  feeling 
when  least  we  are  thinking  about  it  Indeed,  man  in 
his  finite  degree  may  be  said  to  create  a  world  out  of 
himself.  He  is  furnished  with  the  rough  material, 
the  primal  chaos,  so  to  say,  which  he  acts  upon  and 
transfigures  by  his  own  effusive  energies.  Nature 
and  society  furnish  the  material  which  he  works  with 
plastic  power,  and  he  leaves  on  them  the  prints  of  his 
genius,  and  imbues  them  with  the  colorings  of  his 
mind.  According  to  what  he  ts,  is  the  quality  and 
amount  of  the  virtue  that  goes  out  of  him,  and  he 
cannot  cease  to  impart  his  peculiar  life  unless  he 
sinks  into  the  lethargy  of  death.  His  hand,  feeble 
though  it  be,  holds  the  "golden  compasses"  of  the 
poet,  by  which  he  marks  off  a  portion  of  the  chaos 
that  lies  about  him ;  and  this  circumference  is  filled, 
and  to  some  extent  is  changed,  by  that  life  that  never 
ceases  to  go  out  of  him.  Some  modern  philosophers 
would  have  us  believe  that  its  manifestations  are 
more  subtile  than  ordinary  senses  have  ever  detect- 
ed, and  that  all  things  about  him,  when  least  he  is 
conscious  of  it,  are  imbued  and  imprinted  with  his 
genius. 

Indeed,  this  same  distinction  holds  of  all  created 
things,  —  things  as  they  exist  in  their  own  form  and 
essence,  and  as  they  impart  their  virtue  and  perform 
their  use  in  the  grand  economy,  from  the  modest 


70  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

flower  that  rises  by  the  way-side  and  exhales  its 
sweetness  on  the  ambient  air,  to  the  sun  out  of 
whose  orb  come  the  never-ceasing  waves  of  glory 
that  break  on  the  outermost  limits  of  the  universe. 
Not  a  tree  nor  a  leaf — no,  not  a  clod  nor  a  stone  — 
out  of  which  virtue  of  some  kind  is  not  always  go- 
ing. Not  a  substance  which  has  not  its  attractive 
or  repellent  forces,  and  which  does  not  impart  ei- 
ther health  or  poison.  Could  we  see  into  the  life 
of  things,  we  should  know  how  they  act  and  react 
upon  each  other  in  such  wise  as  to  elude  our  clumsy 
analysis,  and  that  that  grandest  conception  of  the 
imagination  had  hardly  outrun  the  sober  truth  of 
philosophy,  — 

"  There  's  not  the  smallest  orb  that  thou  behold'st 
But  in  its  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  choiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubins  ; 
But  while  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  us  in,  we  cannot  hear  it." 

Ascend  we  now  to  the  august  conception  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God.  The  Divine  Being  exists  in 
one  infinite  and  glorious  person,  but  out  of  that  per- 
son comes  the  life  that  pervades  the  universe,  and 
constitutes  the  latent  principle  out  of  which  all  other 
forms  of  life  do  blossom  forth.  It  is  the  effluent  en- 
ergy that  creates  all  souls  in  its  own  image,  and 
which  by  never-ceasing  effusions  would  make  them 
beautify  and  grow  towards  its  own  perfections. 
Falling  into  mute  and  insensate  natures,  they  are 
only  moulded  into  the  passive-  and  unconscious 
images  of  the  Divine  wisdom,  beneficence,  and 


THE    HOLY   SPIRIT.  71 

beauty.  But  falling  into  the  natures  of  free  and  ra- 
tional agents,  and  freely  and  rationally  received,  it 
produces  love,  wisdom,  holiness,  making  man  the 
active  and  conscious  likeness  of  the  supremely  Good 
and  Fair.  Hence  man  returns  the  love  he  receives, 
and  hence  his  communion  with  God.  Free  and 
spiritual  beings  may  receive  this  influence  in  more 
full  or  more  feeble  measures,  and  so  among  them  are 
all  gradations  of  spiritual  life.  The  sensual  and  the 
sinful  grieve  and  quench  the  spirit.  But  it  is  received 
in  more  beatific  measures  among  the  inner  ranks 
of  saint  and  angel,  and  yet  more  by  those  inmost 
ranks  that  do  always  behold  the  face  of  the  Fa- 
ther, — 

"  The  circl.es  in  the  circles  that  approach 
The  central  sun  with  ever  narrowing  orbit." 

Conceiving  the  true  doctrine  of  Divine  influence 
to  be  of  primary  importance,  we  must  ask  the  reader 
now  to  put  this  conception  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
contrast  with  some  other  views,  that  it  may  stand  out 
with  due  prominence.  We  put  it  in  contrast  with 
the  idea  that  the  Divinity  is  an  impersonal  spirit  that 
pervades  humanity,  or  a  blind  unconscious  force  that 
rolls  through  nature.  The  idea  of  God  is  not  to  be 
confounded  with  that  of  the  spirit  which  he  sheds 
abroad.  We  know  of  no  spiritual  influence  which 
is  not  the  outbreathing  life  of  a  living  person.  We 
know  of  no  spiritual  power  which  is  not  the  attribute 
of  a  conscious  being.  Out  of  man  and  above  man, 
out  of  nature  and  above  nature,  is  the  Divine  Person, 
around  whom  centre  all  the  splendors  of  the  God- 


72  THE  SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

head,  but  from  whom  is  that  effluence  of  light 
and  love  which  pervades  the  whole  circuit  of  being, 
and  makes  every  atom  glow  with  his  omnipresence. 
"  Do  not  I  FILL  heaven  and  earth  ?  saith  the  Lord." 

Again,  we  put  it  in  contrast  with  that  abortion  of 
the  human  intellect,  the  personality  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  we  have  not  a  doubt  that  this  latter  is  the 
source  of  much  that  is  anomalous  in  the  prevailing 
modes  of  spiritual  nurture.  For  if  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
a  person  that  comes  and  goes  between  man  and 
God,  his  advent  will  be  hailed  by  tumults  of  rapture, 
his  departure  and  absence  will  be  bewailed  as  the  era 
of  desolation  and  mourning,  his  return  will  be  sought 
by  mystic  rites  and  agonizing  conjurations ;  the  wil- 
dering  fancy  will  see  the  signs  of  his  return  in  its  own 
wandering  lights  and  irregular  frames ;  the  favored 
families  which  he  visits  will  be  pointed  out,  and  the 
•families  which  have  been  "passed  over"  will  seem 
abandoned  to  perdition.  The  churches  will  increase 
rather  by  periodic  agglomerations  than  by  homo- 
geneous and  perennial  growth.  There  will  be  the 
alternation  of  chills  and  fevers,  not  the  conscious- 
ness of  God's  abiding  spirit,  always  given,  always 
immanent,  and  whose  life  is  ever  to  be  unfolded  in 
the  crowning  virtues  and  graces  of  the  Christian 
character. 


CHAPTER   II. 
ITS  GENERAL  AND  SPECIAL  INFLUENCE. 

"  But  when  he  came  the  second  time, 

He  came  with  power  and  love  ; 
Softer  than  gale  at  morning  prime 

Hovered  the  Holy  Dove. 
The  fires  that  rushed  from  Sinai  down 

In  trembling  torrents  dread, 
Now  gently  light,  a  glorious  crown, 

On  every  sainted  head."  —  KEBL«, 

THE  declarations  of  Scripture  which  describe  God 
as  acting  upon  man  and  working  in  man,  naturally 
arrange  themselves  into  two  general  classes.  In  the 
first  place,  they  set  forth  the  doctrine  most  distinctly 
and  unequivocally,  that  God  works  in  all  men  ;  that 
his  is  that  universal  and  incumbent  spirit  by  which 
all  minds,  whether  Christian  or  heathen,  discern  a 
power  above  and  within  themselves,  an  everlasting 
law  that  lies  upon  them  and  seeks  its  realization  in 
all  their  voluntary  actions.  This  eternal  spirit, 
whether  transfused  through  nature  and  making  all 
sensible  things  to  copy  out  the  eternal  mind,  or 
whether  coming  directly  from  within,  has  the  same 
end,  to  woo  the  human  spirit  to  itself.  Paul  places 
both  Jew  and  gentile  alike  under  condemnation,  not 
only  because  the  eternal  power  and  Godhead  had 


74  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

been  revealed  to  the  gentiles  in  visible  things,  but 
because  he  had  been  revealed  in  their  own  conscien- 
ces and  had  written  his  law  upon  their  inmost 
hearts.*  And  the  same  truth  is  broughf  out  with 
amazing  prominence  in  the  steps  of  that  divine 
argument  comprised  in  the  first  fourteen  verses  of 
John's  Gospel.  That  same  Divine  Word  by  which 
all  things  were  made,  and  by  which  therefore  visible 
things  became  the  expression  of  God's  mind,  or,  in 
Platonic  phrase,  the  pictures  of  Goffs  ideas,  —  this 
Word  also  came  to  man  and  shone  amid  the  thick- 
folding  darkness  of  his  soul.  "In  him  was  life,  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  man,  and  the  light  shineth 
in  darkness,  but  the  darkness  comprehendeth  it  not." 
It  was  that  life  enshrined  in  the  inmost  of  humanity, 
and  always  in  effort  to  shoot  up  its  light  into  the 
human  consciousness  and  bring  man's  life  into  har- 
mony with  itself.  And  because  obstructed  by  those 
folds  of  sin  and  error  which  generation  after  genera- 
tion had  laid  around  it,  this  Divine  Word  became 
incarnate  in  Jesus  Christ ;  God  was  manifest  in  the 
flesh,  that  the  nations  might  behold  his  glory,  since 
that  glory  was  waning  to  its  extinction  in  the  soul. 

"  It  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and 
to  do  of  his  good  pleasure."  f  That  man  has  the 
power  of  originating  truth  and  goodness  is  one  of  the 
illusions  of  his  own  pride.  His  mind  is  not  a  ma- 
chine, created  and  set  agoing,  to  work  out  its  results 
independent  of  its  Framer.  Rather  is  it  an  organ- 

*  Rom.  ii.  15.  t  Phil.  ii.  13. 


ITS   GENERAL   AND   SPECIAL   INFLUENCE.  75 

ism  for  the  reception  of  light  and  life  in  perennial 
streams  from  the  Eternal  Fountain,  and  by  that  life 
to  grow  for  ever  into  a  brighter  image  of  God.     Man 
is  made  such  an  organism  by  the  very  constitution 
of  his  spiritual  being,  and  he  cannot  cease  to  be  such 
unless  he  ceases  to  be  human,  and  falls  away  from 
his  species.     It  is  on  this  sure  ground  that  the  Scrip- 
tures place  the  doctrine  of  human  responsibility,  in 
regard  to  those  people  who  have  received  no  special 
revelation.     Even  the  material  world   would  have 
been  to  the  gentiles  no  revelation  of  the  eternal  pow- 
er and   Godhead,   unless  that   same  power  which 
spread  abroad  its  scenery  had  imparted  his  informing 
and  imbreathing  spirit  to  interpret  its  signs.      So, 
then,  every  form  in   which   humanity  can  possibly 
appear  is  an  organism  adapted  to  receive  into  its  in- 
most nature  this  effluent  life  of  God,- just  as  in  the 
natural  world  every  thing  that  grows,  from  the  daffo- 
dil  to  the  cedar  of  Lebanon,  is  flooded  by  the  light 
and  heat  of  the  sun,  by  which  the  vital  juices  are 
kept  in  motion,  and  out  of  which  are  woven  the  col- 
ors of  woods  and  fields.     All  the  spiritual   graces 
which  man  puts  on  through  the  thousand  shades  of 
character,   both   Christian  and  heathen,  are  in  like 
manner  from  the  life  of  God  received  within  and 
thence  blooming  outward  upon  the  world.     As  soon 
as  he  receives  existence,  he  receives  along  with  it 
intellectual   and  affectional   powers,  one  to  receive 
truth  and  be  formed  thereby  into  the  image  of  the 
Divine  reason,  the  other  to  be  kindled  and  guided  by 
it  and  be  formed  thereby  into  the  image  of  eternal 


76 


THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 


love.  There  is  no  mind,  moreover,  into  which  hath 
not  dawned  the  great  idea  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
that  quivering  sense  of  justice  in  all  men  which  they 
call  conscience,  and  which  the  Apostle  says  made 
the  heathen  a  law  unto  themselves,  is  formed  by  the 
gentle  and  never-ceasing  undulations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  through  the  heart.  Man  lives  in  two  worlds 
at  the  same  time,  one  of  matter  and  one  of  spirit- 
Not  more  surely  do  the  external  senses  open  outward 
and  downward,  and  put  him  in  communication  with 
material  things,  than  a  finer  sense  opens  inward  and 
upward,  through  which  come  the  idea  of  God  and 
tidings  of  immortality.  Not  more  surely  do  his  sen- 
suous faculties  bring  into  his  ear  the  sound  of  waters, 
and  over  his  brow  the  breath  of  breezes,  than  his  spir- 
itual faculties  admit  to  his  soul  the  aura  of  heaven 
and  the  still  and  awful  beatings  from  the  heart  of 
God.  "  What  nation  or  race  of  men  can  be  found," 
asks  a  heathen  writer  whose  pages  are  more  alive 
with  spiritual  ideas  than  much  of  our  Christian  lit- 
erature, —  "  what  nation  or  race  of  men  can  be  found, 
which  have  not  without  any  teaching  some  precon- 
ceptions of  Deity,  some  idea  of  the  subject  by  which 
the  mind  is  preoccupied,  and  without  which  there 
could  be  no  questions  and  reasonings  about  it? 
There  must  be  divinities,  for  we  have  thoughts  of 
them  which  are  inseminated  and  inborn."  *  So  he 
will  have  it  that  the  primal  truths  are  not  the  discov- 
eries of  man's  painful  logic,  but  they  roll  in  upon 

*  Cicero,  De  Natura  Deorum,  I.  16,  17. 


ITS    GENERAL    AND    SPECIAL    INFLUENCE.  77 

him  from  the  all-informing  Intelligence,  and  to  per- 
ceive them  he  has  but  to  listen  and  to  pause.  At 
any  rate,  we  are  shut  in  to  one  of  two  alternatives. 
We  must  assume  that  all  the  disinterested  virtues, 
all  godlike  sentiment,  and  the  ideas  of  God  and  im- 
mortality and  the  divine  law,  which  are  found  out- 
side of  Christendom,  are  what  man  has  evolved  out 
of  his  own  reason,  independent  of  divine  aid,  and 
so  he  can  be  wise  and  good  of  himself,  or  else  we 
assume  that  God  is  never  without  a  witness  in  the 
hearts  of  all  his  rational  creatures,  and  that  the  Eter- 
nal Word  is  the  true  light  that  enlighteneth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  We  take  the  lat- 
ter alternative,  in  company,  as  we  think,  with  the 
Evangelist  and  the  Apostle,  and  we  say,  as  Erasmus 
did  after  reading  Cicero  on  duty  and  immortality, 
"  I  am  so  affected  that  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  breast 
whence  such  things  proceeded  was  in  some  way  oc- 
cupied by  the  Divinity." 

But  while  the  New  Testament  writers  assert  this 
immanence  of  God's  spirit  in  man,  they  use  the 
words  Holy  Spirit  in  a  more  restricted  sense,  and 
as  describing  a  special  influence.  The  Saviour,  on 
the  eve  of  withdrawing  his  personal  presence  from 
his  disciples,  gave  promise  that  he  would  send  the 
Comforter,  the  spirit  of  truth,  to  guide  them  into  all 
truth  and  bring  all  his  teachings  to  their  remem- 
brance. Up  to  the  hour  of  his  ascension,  they  were 
ignorant  of  the  nature  of  his  kingdom,  and  the  truths 
of  Christianity  lay  dead  in  their  memories.  But  af- 
ter ten  days  had  passed  away,  and  while  they  were 


78  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

assembled  at  Jerusalem  in  expectation  of  some  new 
tokens  from  on  high,  the  promised  influence  came. 
God's  spirit  swept  through  their  souls  like  rushing 
breezes ;  the  truths  that  lie  dead  in  their  memories 
are  blown  into  flame,  their  powers  of  utterance  are 
unloosed,  and  such  is  the  new  light  within  that  it 
seems  to  play  around  their  persons  like  lambent 
fire.*  This  was  the  commencement  of  a  new  dis- 
pensation of  the  spirit,  which  ever  since  has  been  en- 
joyed by  the  Christian  Church  just  so  far  as  she  has 
observed  the  condition  of  its  reception.  Yes,  it  was 
the  great  purpose  of  Christ  in  coming  into  the  world 
to  prepare  the  way  for  this  new  advent  of  the  Divinity 
in  the  human  soul.  It  was  to  remove  all  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  God's  access  to  humanity,  that  he, 
who  is  always  coming,  might  be  always  received. 

Now  it  is  important  to  observe,  that  this  new  di- 
vine influence  differs  in  degree,  though  not  in  kind, 
from  the  universal  action  of  God  in  man  before  de- 
scribed. Ever  and  everywhere  the  hindrance  to  this 
action  is  the  sin  and  the  ignorance  of  man,  the  dark 
and  baleful  cloud  formed  from  exhalations  out  of 
his  own  heart,  and  hanging  between  him  and  the 
Divine  glory.  But  for  this,  God  would  inundate  our 
souls  every  hour  with  the  warmth  and  the  splendors 
of  noon.  Precisely  here  was  the  consummation  of  the 
mission  of  Christ.  He  came  first  with  a  dispensa- 
tion of  truth,  and  the  dispensation  of  the  spirit  was 
the  necessary  consummation.  He  penetrated  the 

*  Compare  John  xx.  26  with  Acts  ii. 


ITS   GENERAL   AND   SPECIAL   INFLUENCE.  79 

darkness  that  brooded  over  the  mind,  and  God  shone 
without  hindrance  into  it.  And  so  the  Church  in  the 
day  of  its  purity  appeared  in  an  age  of  darkness, 
like  one  of  those  refulgent  spots  which  lie  upon  the 
landscape  under  a  riven  cloud,  and  which  on  either 
side  are  flanked  by  the  shadows  flung  from  its 
wings. 

All  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  describe  the 
operations  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  whether  as  a  general 
dispensation  to  human  nature,  or  a  special  dispensa- 
tion to  the  Christian  Church,  are  in  strict  harmony 
with  the  deductions  of  analogy.  True,  there  are 
passages  in  which  it  is  personified,  but  it  is  personi- 
fied in  just  the  same  way  as  is  every  attribute  of 
God,  —  his  Word  and  his  Wisdom,  his  Mercy  and 
Truth,  his  Righteousness  and  Peace.*  In  its  opera- 
tion, it  is  always  represented  as  the  effluent  life  of 
God.  Take  its  current  phraseology,  being  "  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost, "  "  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  and  try  to  annex  the  idea  of  a  person,  and 
the  understanding  is  overwhelmed  with  confusion. 
Take  the  whole  Pentecostal  scene,  where  the  spirit 
descended  into  the  minds  of  the  Apostles,  and  ap- 
peared around  them  like  the  play  of  nimble  light- 
nings, conceive  of  it  as  a  person,  and  your  concep- 
tion becomes  perplexing  and  monstrous.  But  think 
of  it  as  an  influence  from  the  one  Infinite  Person, 
which  imbathed  their  souls  with  its  tidal  fragrance 
and  light,  and  all  is  clear  and  rational,  and  in  close 
accordance  with  the  facts  of  Scripture  and  analogy. 

*  Ps.  Ixxxv.  10. 


80  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

The  new  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  intro- 
duced through  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  a 
topic  to  which  we  shall  return  when  treating  of  the 
means  of  regeneration.  What  we  now  observe  is, 
that  it  is  the  same  Holy  Spirit,  the  effluent  life  of 
God,  of  which  all  nations  and  ages  have  had  some 
perception  and  experience.  But  by  the  mediation 
of  Christ,  it  was  made  more  operative  in  human  re- 
demption. Both  the  general  influence  and  its  spe- 
cial adaptations  to  the  human  condition  imply  a 
nature  in  man  receptive  of  the  gift. 


CHAPTER    III. 

SPIRITUAL  INFLUENCE. 

" Of  that  innumerable  company 

Who  in  broad  circles,  lovelier  than  the  rainbow, 
Girdle  this  round  earth  with  a  dizzy  motion, 
With  noise  too  vast  and  constant  to  be  heard,  — 
Fitliest  unheard  !    For,  0  ye  numberless 
And  rapid  travellers  !  what  ear  unstunned, 
I     What  sense  unmaddened,  might  bear  up  against 

The  nuttng  of  your  congregated  wings !  "  —  COLERIDGE. 

THE  Christian  believes  that  after  the  event  of 
death  he  shall  be  transferred  to  a  sphere  of  spiritu- 
al being,  and  be  surrounded  by  the  denizens  of  an- 
other world.  But  what  if  we  are  already  in  it! 
What  if  already  we  are  environed  by  its  "  number- 
less and  rapid  travellers  "  !  This  veil  of  flesh  that 
hangs  about  us  is  designed  not  more  to  reveal  God 
to  us,  than  to  attemper  and  soften  to  us  his  intenser 
brightness  ;  —  to  hide  the  stupendous  agencies  by 
which  he  sways  us,  and  to  muffle  the  noise  of  their 
footsteps,  because  our  ears  could  not  bear  the  too 
solemn  sounds,  nor  our  eyes  gaze  on  the  too  beauti- 
ful sight! 

Man,  in  the  great  plan  of  providence,  is  not  trans- 
ferred from  one  sphere  of  being  into  another. 
Rather  is  he  brought  into  conscious  relations  to  a 


82  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

higher  and  yet  higher  sphere,  by  the  successive  de- 
velopment of  his  original  powers.  The  infant,  first 
introduced  into  this  world  of  sense,  scarcely  sees  its 
varied  forms  of  art  and  nature.  All  is  a  blank,  or 
all  is  confusion ;  but  he  has  within  him  a  faculty 
which  gradually  unfolds  and  comes  into  exercise, 
and  then  what  new  and  endless  prospects  open 
around  him  !  The  man  blind  from  his  birth  has 
seemed  to  himself  to  live  only  in  a  very  narrow 
sphere,  through  which  he  groped  painfully,  breathing 
the  fragrance  of  fields  and  bathing  in  the  warm 
sunlight,  yet  seeing  not  the  objects  whence  they 
come.  Some  skilful  hand  touches  the  undeveloped 
faculty  and  removes  its  obstructions^  and  fo !  with- 
out any  transfer,  he  lives  in  a  new  WOTld,  that  floods 
his  soul  with  grandeur  and  beauty.  He  has  not 
been  carried  into  it,  for  it  lay  all  about  him  before, 
and  poured  its  influence  upon  him ;  but  now  for  the 
first  time  his  developed  powers  have  brought  him 
into  open  relations  with  it.  Nor  can  we  say  how 
far  this  might  still  go  on.  Not  one  half  of  the  glo- 
ry and  exceUency  even  of  this  visible  sphere  has  ever 
yet  revealed  itself  to  our  dull  senses,  and  agencies 
too  refined  and  subtile  for  our  detection  are  every 
moment  playing  around  us  and  through  us.  Were 
our  perceptions  sufficiently  quickened,  or  new  per- 
ceptions given  us,  what  a  new  world  of  wonders 
would  open  upon  us,  even  where  now  we  stand, 
transcending  ah1  our  imaginations  and  dreams ! 

Even  so  the  spiritual  world  is  not  a  realm  far  off 
in  space,  into  which  we  shall  be  introduced  by  the 


SPIRITUAL    INFLUENCE.  83 

event  of  death.  Rather  is  it  that  order  of  being  of 
which  we  are  to  have  cognizance  by  the  powers 
that  already  wait  within  us,  and  death  will  not  so 
much  remove  us,  as  remove  from  us  the  obstructions 
that  closed  us  in  from  its  unseen  illuminations. 

We  read  that  sometimes  in  the  plan  of  Divine 
Providence  this  inner  sense,  which  ordinarily  is  not 
brought  into  exercise  until  that  moment  when  the 
spirit  is  dissevered  from  the  swathings  of  the  flesh, 
is  for  special  reasons  opened  before  that  time,  giving 
to  the  prophet  cognizance  of  those  schemes  and 
orders  of  being  which  surround  him.  The  patriarch 
lay  down  to  rest,  and  while  his  external  senses  were 
closed,  this  inward  eye  was  unsealed  and  opened 
wide,  and  lo !  t15e  vast  agencies  are  revealed  to  him, 
rank  above  rank,  that  "  move  up  and  down  on  heav- 
enly ministries."  The  prophet  is  called  to  his  solerrwi 
office  while  the  coverings  of  sense  are  rolled  away, 
giving  him  gleams  of  that  sublime  ritual  by  which 
the  heavenly  hosts  waft  praises  to  the  Creator.  The 
three  favored  disciples  withdrew  with  their  Master 
to  the  stillness  of  the  mount,  and  there  saw  him 
as  he  appeared  within  the  concealments  of  flesh  and 
blood,  holding  converse  with  the  glorified  prophets. 
The  Saviour  passes  from  the  scene  of  temptation  to 
the  scene  of  victory,  beset  in  the  one  by  the  tempt- 
ing fiends,  and  encircled  in  the  other  by  the  minis- 
tering angels.  The  great  Apostle  is  for  a  time  freed 
from  the  clogs  of  the  body,  and  sees  things  which 
cannot  be  described.* 

*  Gen.  xxviii.  12 :  Isa.  vi.  2 ;  Matt.  xvii. ;  iv.  1  - 1 1  ;  2  Cor  xii.  4. 


84  THE    SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

Now  the  question  arises,  Do  these  facts  stand 
alone,  or  are  they  shining  portions  of  a  universal 
law,  which  in  its  all-circling  operations  has  in  these 
instances  come  into  light?  Are  they  special  agen- 
cies, which  in  these  cases  have  come  and  gone,  or 
are  they  simply  openings  through  the  veil,  that  show 
to  us  what  always  is  taking  place  ?  Was  the  spot 
where  the  patriarch  slept  indeed  more  holy  than 
other  places,  and  was  the  bush  of  Moses  the  only 
symbol  of  angelic  ministrations?  or  rather,  could  we 
see  as  they  saw,  would  not  every  spot  be  holy,  and 
all  nature  seem  aglow  with  those  activities  which 
run  from  the  spiritual  world  into  the  natural?  Was 
the  Saviour  of  men  our  example  in  temptation  only, 
or  was  he  not  also  our  example  in  victory,  revealing 
to  us  those  heavenly  auxiliaries  that  work  with  us 
and  strengthen  us  as  we  toil  up  the  hill  of  Diffi- 
culty towards  the  regions  of  peace  ?  And  on  the 
mount  of  transfiguration,  was  the  change  in  him,  so 
that  he  appeared  as  never  before,  or  was  it  in  his  dis- 
ciples, so  that 'they  saw  him  as  he  always  had  been, 
living  in  two  worlds,  walking  on  the  earth  and  yet 
"  the  Son  of  man  who  is  in  heaven,"  talking  with 
men  and  yet  commercing  with  the  skies  ?  To  our 
apprehension,  these  facts  are  not  single  and  arbitrary. 
Indeed,  no  such  facts  exist  anywhere,  could  we  read 
them  aright.  When  we  call  them  single  and  arbi- 
trary, we  seem  to  forget  that  they  presuppose  those 
slumbering  capacities  that  wait  within  us  and  the 
proximity  of  the  sphere  of  immortality,  and  that  our 
transit  from  this  to  that  is  only  as  "  a  sleep  and  a 


SPIRITUAL   INFLUENCE.  85 

waking."  Man  could  not  be  the  subject  of  such 
revelations  unless  already  he  lived  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  mystic  world,  and  had  a  faculty  within 
him  to  be  acted  upon  by  its  essential  laws.  These 
concealments  of  matter  which  engird  us  are  there- 
fore but  frail  walls  that  shut  us  in,  which,  falling 
down,  give  us  sight  of  those  higher  skies  that  arch 
over  us,  and  those  brighter  fields  that  lie  around  us 
trodden  by  the  feet  of  angels,  and  over  which  breathe 
the  airs  of  celestial  love.* 


*  We  trost  it  is  not  necessary  to  point  out  to  the  intelligent  reader 
the  distinction  between  that  influent  life  which  we  suppose  to  come  to 
man  from  a  spiritual  world,  and  open  communication  and  intercourse 
•with  its  inhabitants.  The  former  comes  to  him  internally,  not  falling 
into  his  consciousness  as  a  distinct  mental  process,  but  falling  in 
with  all  the  natural  processes  of  thought  and  emotion,  to  render  them 
healthy  and  pure.  Open  intercourse  with  the  spiritual  world,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  the  applying  of  its  agencies  to  the  outward  senses.  The 
former,  like  the  Holy  Spirit  itself,  unfolds  our  powers  from  within,  pre- 
serves us  in  freedom,  and  fortifies  our  manhood.  The  latter  comes  to 
us  in  dicta  from  without,  and  may,  if  yielded  to,  destroy  our  freedom  and 
break  down  our  manhood.  The  veil  that  hangs  between  the  two 
worlds  of  spirit  and  matter  was  placed  there  as  a  protection  and  guard, 
because  in  our  present  state  we  cannot  bear  an  open  view  of  spiritual 
realities.  It  is  obviously  not  in  the  order  of  Providence  to  give  to  any 
one  an  open  vision  of  any  other  sphere  than  the  one  in  which  his  works 
and  duties  lie.  What  is  beyond  or  above  this,  we  take  hold  of  by  an- 
other and  a  higher  order  of  faculties  than  the  senses,  so  that  no  disturb- 
ing sights  or  sounds  shall  sway  or  divert  us.  In  those  cases  recorded 
in  Scripture,  where  mortals  have  been  suffered  to  look  behind  the  cur- 
tains of  Futurity,  we  shall  find  that  it  was  not  for  their  special  benefit, 
but  on  account  of  the  historical  crisis  in  which  they  acted,  and  then 
under  a  special  Divine  protection.  While,  therefore,  we  have  no  wish 
to  discuss  at  all  those  phenomena  known  as  "  spirit  manifestations,"  but 
leave  them  to  work  out  their  own  legitimate  results,  we  yet  rescue  our 
8 


86  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

Are  we  touching  this  theme  with  too  bold  a  hand  ? 
If  it  seem  so  to  our  sensuous  philosophies,  let  it  be 
borne  in  mind  that  we  are  interpreting,  not  only  the 
word  of  God,  but  the  latent  convictions  of  the  hu- 
man heart,  and  that  when  the  philosophers  are  at 
variance  with  those  convictions  which  form  the  sub- 
strata of  universal  belief,  the  philosophers  are  uni- 
formly at  fault.  What  mean,  not  only  these  thoughts 
that  wander  through  eternity,  but  the  thoughts  that 
wander  from  eternity  into  time,  and  lie  on  the  com- 
mon mind  like  a  haunting  presence,  unless  it  be  that 
the  spirit-realm  already  inspheres  us,  and  stirs  our 
souls  with  strange  feelings  and  anticipations  ?  In 
those  crises  in  the  good  man's  life  when  darkness 
seems  to  brood  over  all  his  affairs,  whence  that  com- 
munion which  he  has  with  the  solemn  troops  of  glori- 
fied saints,  as  if  their  faces  shone  through  the  clouds, 
and  their  conquering  spirit  had  possessed  his  heart  ? 
Yea,  is  not  the  scheme  of  Providence  itself  a  grand 
system  of  mediation  ?  He  moves  on  his  vast  designs, 


own  doctrine  from  perversion.  And  we  would  say,  that  we  believe  the 
higher  world  of  spirits  may  yet  so  act  upon  our  faculties  from  within, 
and  so  mirror  itself  upon  the  enlarged  and  clarified  reason,  that  the 
objects  of  faith  shall  be  quite  as  real  to  us  as  the  objects  of  sight,  and 
the  inner  realms  and  orders  of  being  in  which  we  already  live,  be  im- 
aged on  the  eye  of  our  faith  with  a  consistence  and  brightness  that  no 
external  communications  could  give.  Nay,  further,  we  suppose  it  quite 
possible,  that  in  this  way  we  may  come  to  apprehend  spiritual  laws  and 
modes  of  being,  while  in  the  body,  much  better  than  many  who  have 
emerged  out  of  it,  and  who,  if  they  were  permitted  to  speak  to  us, 
would  give  us,  not  laws  of  being,  but  disjointed  facts,  or  fantasies 
without  facts,  and  so  only  ply  us  with  the  gossip  of  their  own  sphere. 


SPIRITUAL    INFLUENCE.  87 

not  only  by  his  own  direct  influence  and  agency,  but 
by  those  ministries  which  descend,  one  rank  beneath 
another,  to  the  lowest  affairs,  and  link  the  least  event 
with  the  greatest 

The  spirit-world,  then,  is  not  far  off.  The  good 
man  with  every  new  Christian  grace  is  brought  into 
holier  affinities  with  the  societies  of  the  blest.  The 
bands  of  angels  come  near  and  close  around  him, 
and  when  death  uncovers  his  sight,  it  simply  shows 
him  where  he  is!  More  true  is  it  than  the  writer 
himself  intends  who  says  it,  that  while  his  feet  touch 
the  earth,  his  head  is  "  bathed  in  the  galaxies  of  heav- 
en." The  bad  man  withdraws  from  those  blest  socie- 
ties, and  seeks  alliance  with  the  lost,  so  that  when 
death  opens  his  inner  sight,  it  also  shows  him  where 
he  is ;  shows  him  the  community  of  woe  into  which 
he  has  introduced  himself,  and  the  baleful  scenery 
that  lies  about  him.  Every  day  do  we  breathe  the 
airs  of  heaven  or  the  blasts  of  hell. 

When  the  first  man  saw  the  sun  going  down  in 
the  west,  how  might  he  have  quailed  at  the  thought 
that  hopeless  night  and  blank  nothingness  only  were 
to  follow.  But  it  was  the  lifting  away  of  that  veil 
of  sunbeams  that  did  blind  and  dazzle  him  so  that 
he  could  not  see  the  vast  creation  in  which  he  lived. 
The  endless  systems  among  which  our  little  orb  is 
interlocked  by  numberless  bonds  of  attraction,  and 
along  with  which  it  travels  the  celestial  spaces  with 
tremulous  motion,  would  never  have  been  known  to 
us,  unless  the  light  that  made  us  blind  had  been 
withdrawn,  that  we  might  gaze  upon  those  giant 


88  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

wonders  and  glories.  In  like  manner  how  does  the 
deceitful  glare  of  this  earthly  scene  obstruct  our  vis- 
ion !  And  how  will  the  going  down  of  its  sun  bring 
on,  not  the  night  we  dreaded,  but  the  vision  of  those 
vast  orders  of  being  to  whose  attractive  power  we 
had  moved  when  we  saw  them  not !  * 

*  "  Mysterious  night !  when  our  first  parent  knew 
Thee,  from  report  divine,  and  heard  thy  name, 
Did  he  not  tremble  for  this  lovely  frame, 
This  glorious  canopy  of  light  and  blue  ? 
Yet,  'neath  a  curtain  of  translucent  dew, 
Bathed  in  the  rays  of  the  great  setting  flame, 
Hesperus  with  the  host  of  heaven  came, 
And,  lo !  creation  widened  in  man's  view. 
Who  could  have  thought  such  darkness  lay  concealed 
Within  thy  beams,  0  Sun  !  or  who  could  find, 
Whilst  fly  and  leaf  and  insect  stood  revealed, 
That  to  such  countless  orbs  thou  mad'st  us  blind  ? 
Why  do  we  then  shun  death  with  anxious  strife  ? 
If  LIGHT  can  thus  deceive,  wherefore  not  LIFE  1 " 

BLANCO  WHITE. 

"  The  glories  I  have  described  cannot  be  all.  Shrouded  by  the  veil 
of  day,  they  would,  had  the  earth,  like  the  sluggish  moon,  turned  on  its 
axis  only  as  it  moves  in  its  orbit,  have  been  hidden  hopelessly  and 
for  ever  by  the  gairish  beams  of  the  sun.  Yes,  though  their  bright 
haunts  are  always  around  us,  and,  in  virtue  of  the  universal  sympathies 
of  things,  play  upon  our  beings  unceasingly,  through  influences  and  laws 
not  yet  unfolded,  even  their  partial  and  interrupted  cognition  by  the 
human  spirit  flows  wholly  from  a  physical  character  of  our  globe  which 
perhaps  might  not  have  been.  Is  it  not  possible,  then,  that,  through 
other  conditions  of  our  conscious  being,  we  are  engirt  by  other  uni- 
verses, which,  though  at  present  veiled,  —  thinly  it  may  be,  —  are  yet 
real  and  vast  as  the  world  of  stars  ?  What  are  those  dreamlike  and 
inscrutable  thoughts,  that  start  up  in  moments  of  stillness,  apparently 
as  from  the  deeps,  like  the  movements  of  leaves  during  a  silent  night 
in  prognostic  of  the  breeze  that  has  yet  to  come,  if  not  the  rustlings  of 
schemes  and  orders  of  existence,  near,  but  unseen  ? "  —  NICHOL. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  PRIMAL  INNOCENCE. 


"  Dear  child  !  dear  girl '.  that  walkest  with  me  here, 
If  them  appear'st  untouched  by  solemn  thought, 
Thy  nature  is  not  therefore  leas  divine : 
Thou  liest  in  Abraham's  bosom  all  the  year, 
And  worshipp'st  at  the  Temple's  inner  shrine, 
God  being  with  thee  when  we  know  it  not."  —  WORDSWORTH. 


WE  have  stated  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  a 
special  agency  that  conies  and  goes  at  certain  sea- 
sons, to  be  sought  in  frames  and  raptures,  but  that 
efflux  of  light  and  life  out  of  the  Divine  nature, 
which  pervades  the  whole  orb  of  being,  and  becomes 
immanent  in  the  human  soul.  We  now  proceed  to 
the  illustration  of  this  truth,  and  to  this  end  we  select 
first  for  consideration  the  period  of  childhood. 

We  might  well  suppose  that  this  would  be  pre- 
eminently the  period  when  God  would  be  around 
and  within  the  little  being,  like  an  atmosphere  of 
love.  For  not  yet  has  hereditary  evil  been  warmed 
into  rank  luxuriance.  Its  germination  will  come,  alas ! 
as  soon  as  the  influence  of  the  world  falls  upon  it, 
or  as  soon  as  its  growth  from  within  shall  reveal  the 
leprosy  that  is  luiking  there.  But  as  yet  its  germs 
are  quiescent,  and  when  can  God  be  so  near  to  it, 


90  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

and  when  can  those  angels  that  do  always  behold 
the  Father's  face  bend  around  it,  as  now,  with  the 
imbreathing  fragrance  of  heaven  ? 

But  let  us  come  to  the  facts,  and  let  us  read  them 
aright.  There  are  amiable  qualities  which  in  in- 
fancy are  always  more  or  less  manifest,  —  innocence, 
tender  sensibility,  and  unsullied  love.  They  appear 
with  entire  spontaneity,  as  if  a  purer  sphere  were 
seeking  to  mirror  itself  in  the  crystalline  spirit  ere  the 
motions  of  turbid  passion  have  disturbed  its  limpid 
deeps.  Along  with  these,  ideas  of  God,  of  Right,  and 
of  Duty  are  awakened,  generally  with  the  earliest 
dawnings  of  the  reason  and  the  powers  of  language. 

But  it  is  said  that  natural  innocence  and  gentle 
dispositions  appear  also  among  the  lower  species  as 
mere  animal  instincts,  and  therefore  they  do  not  in- 
dicate personal  holiness.  We  are  not  saying  that 
they  do.  There  are  a  great  many  things  which  are 
good  and  lovely,  which  do  not  indicate  the  presence 
of  personal  holiness.  The  creative  energies  of  God 
flow  down  and  manifest  themselves  in  lower  forms 
than  man,  even  through  all  forms  of  animate  and  in- 
animate nature.  There  in  lower  types  are  copied 
out  his  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness.  The  bird 
of  morning,  without  knowing  it,  pours  her  matins  to 
the  Creator's  praise.  The  lamb  that  gambols  over 
the  pastures,  the  dove  that  hovers  around  us  on 
gentle  and  graceful  wings,  are  natural  images  of  ce- 
lestial purity,  innocence,  and  peace.  Hence  God's 
Spirit  is  called  the  holy  dove,  and  Jesus  is  the  Lamb 
of  God.  Not  only  so,  but  these  same  images  are 


THE    PRIMAL    INNOCENCE.  91 

found  in  inanimate  nature,  —  in  the  dews  that  distil 
softly  as  God's  grace,  in  the  winds  that  breathe,  like 
his  spirit,  the  invisible  element  in  which  all  things 
live,  in  waters  whose  suffusions  upon  the  brow  sym- 
bolize the  all-cleansing  suffusions  of  God's  spirit 
within.  Now  how  do  these  lovely  and  beneficent 
qualities  differ,  as  they  appear  in  nature  and  as  they 
appear  in  man.  Just  here,  —  that  in  nature  they  are 
the  unconscious  and  passive  manifestations  of  the 
Divine  goodness  and  reason,  while  man  has  the  pow- 
er to  discern  their  quality  and  receive  and  manifest 
them,  not  in  obedience  to  blind  instincts,  but  in  obe- 
dience to  a  Divine  command.  Then  he  transmutes 
them  from  natural  qualities  into  spiritual.  They 
change  their  character  when  passing  through  the 
alchemy  of  a  human  spirit,  and  under  the  action  of 
a  human  will.  What  else  were  natural  amiability 
merely,  is  transfigured  into  the  Christian  graces  and 
virtues.  What  was  natural  becomes  spiritual,  as 
water  became  wine  at  the  touch  of  Jesus. 

So  then  the  natural  innocence  of  infancy,  though 
not  holiness,  any  more  than  the  natural  innocence 
of  the  lamb,  indicates,  nevertheless,  the  preadapta- 
tions  of  the  all-plastic  Spirit  tg  produce  holiness. 
Those  tender  affections,  and  snow-white  fancies, 
and  guileless  dispositions,  in  which  during  our  infan- 
cy heaven  lies  about  us,  are  soon  to  pass  beneath 
the  moral  choice  of  a  voluntary  agent.  He  is  to 
decide  whether  he  will  take  up  this  heaven  into  his 
own  breast  and  bear  it  away  from  natural  things  as 
his  everlasting  treasure,  or  whether  it  shall  be  lost 


92  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

and  only  remembered  as  the  dream-light  that  reposed 
upon  the  hills  of  his  childhood.  So  long  as  these 
qualities  are  merely  natural,  they  are  not  his  own. 
They  wait  to  be  appropriated.  They  may  be 
'wrought  by  him  into  his  character  as  its  essential 
elements,  or  when  hereditary  evil  shoots  up  with 
tropic  luxuriance  they  may  be  choked  among  the 
thistles  and  thorns.  But  how  much  is  gained  to  us, 
that  heaven  is  the  first  to  mirror  its  eternal  purities 
on  our  hearts  and  fancies,  and  that  God's  spirit  is 
the  first  to  enter  the  soul  through  its  spontaneous 
motions  !  Even  though  these  visitings  be  rejected, 
they  may  linger  on  the  memory  like  a  dream  of 
paradise,  so  that  the  grace-hardened  sinner  shall 
seem  to  himself  to  have  descended  into  a  world  of 
guilt  out  of  a  preexistent  state,  "  trailing  clouds  of 
glory "  after  him  that  were  dissolved  in  the  black 
night  that  finally  shut  him  in,  until,  as  it  appeared  in 
the  visions  of  the  opium-eater,  he  sees  the  towering 
gates  of  ingress  at  length  closed  upon  him  and  hung 
with  funeral  crape. 

It  furnishes  strong  conformation,  we  might  al- 
most say  absolute  proof,  of  the  view  we  are  now 
taking  of  the  staie  of  infancy,  that  conversion  is 
often  produced  by  those  tender  voices  of  the  mem- 
ory, coming  down  through  a  long  past,  waking  up 
the  feelings  of  childhood,  and  making  its  familiar 
scenery  rush  back  in  vivid  pictures  upon  the  fancy. 
The  lessons  of  parent  and  teacher  are  forgotten,  and 
seem  to  have  passed  away.  The  docility  of  the 
child  is  gone,  the  effusions  of  infantile  affection  cease, 


THE    PRIMAL    INNOCENCE.  93 

under  the  hard  incrustations  of  the  world.  But  some 
incident  calls  them  back,  some  great  truth  put  home 
with  a  point  that  pierces  the  heart,  some  stroke  of 
God's  providence  that  shivers  through  the  layers  of 
indifference  and  sin,  and  lo !  as  by  a  magic  wand,  the 
burial-places  of  memory  deliver  up  their  dead,  and 
they  sweep  in  long  procession  down  the  desert  of 
years ;  the  best  impressions  of  childhood  revive  with 
amazing  freshness  ;  the  lessons  long  forgotten  come 
back  in  the  old  familiar  tones  ;  the  texts  out  of  the 
old  Bible  preach  anew ;  the  prayers  that  went  up 
from  a  mother's  knee  now  plead  afresh,  nor  plead  in 
vain.  The  wanderer  from  home  forgets  a  parent's 
blessing,  and  breaks  his  first  resolves ;  he  plunges 
through  the  doors  of  infamy,  and  crime  has  become 
so  familiar,  that  the  conscience  is  dregged  and  the 
sensibilities  are  turned  to  stone.  But  he  goes  back 
to  the  spot  whence  his  wanderings  began ;  the  old 
hearth-stone  is  cold  and  the  old  faces  are  changed 
and  gone,  but  the  heart  melts  and  the  big  tears  of 
penitence  roll  fast  upon  a  mother's  grave. 

There  are  two  passages  in  the  teachings  of  our 
Saviour  in  which  this  philosophy  of  conversion  is 
divinely  set  forth.  The  young  ruler  came  to  him, 
inquiring  what  he  should  do  to  inherit  eternal  life. 
So  much  there  was  of  amiability  in  the  person  of  the 
young  man,  so  much  of  natural  goodness  blooming 
in  his  countenance,  so  much  of  gentleness  in  his  ad- 
dress, for  he  came  to  him  kneeling,  that  the  sensibili- 
ties of  the  Saviour  are  touched,  and  beholding  him  he 
loved  him.  But  these  qualities  are  only  natural  ones, 


94  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

and  when  the  Saviour  puts  him  to  the  test  of  volun- 
tary obedience  he  fails.*  Could  we  follow  him  fur- 
ther, how  should  we  find  that  those  graces  which 
blossomed  forth  with  such  early  promise  faded  away 
and  disappeared,  and  that  the  amiable  young  man 
was  changed  into  the  hard  and  covetous  Jew,  not 
because  those  early  qualities  which  put  forth  their 
spontaneous  beauty  were  not  good,  but  because  they 
did  not  become  fixed  elements  of  character,  through 
voluntary  obedience  !  How  often  has  this  history 
been  repeated  before  our  eyes  !  And  those  qualities 
and  graces,  which  in  childhood  are  the  living  trans- 
parencies through  which  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  " 
shines  down  into  the  kingdom  of  nature,!  are  left 
behind,  manifested  in  the  spontaneity  of  the  child,  but 
not  fixed  in  the  voluntary  life  of  the  man.  And  yet 
repentance  may  bring  them  back;  for  we  read  of 
another  who  wasted  his  substance  in  riotous  living, 
so  that  fain  he  would  have  herded  with  the  swine. 
But  he  thinks  of  his  father's  house,  sweet  memories 
are  stirring  at  his  heart,  and  he  "  comes  to  himself." 
He  goes  back  to  the  sunny  spot  whence  his  wander- 
ings began.  The  scenes  of  his  innocent  days,  that 
never  ceased  to  haunt  his  visions,  are  given  back  to 
his  eyes,  and  there,  where  he  tended  the  flocks,  and 
drove  them  afield,  he  weeps  away  his  guilt  on  his 
father's  bosom.  J 

We  have  seen  an  incident  quoted  from  Audubon's 
Ornithology,  illustrative  of  the  principle  which   we 


*  Mark  x.  17.  +  Matt.  xix.  14,  t  I^ke  xv.  11. 


THE    PRIMAL    INNOCENCE.  95 

have  in  hand.  It  is  found  under  his  description  of 
the  Zenaida  dove.  "  A  man  who  was  once  a  pirate 
assured  me,  that  several  times,  while  at  certain  wells 
dug  in  the  burning,  shelly  sands  of  a  well-known  key 
which  must  be  here  nameless,  the  soft  and  melancholy 
notes  of  the  doves  awoke  in  his  breast  feelings  which 
had  long  slumbered,  melted  his  heart  to  repentance, 
and  caused  him  to  linger  at  the  spot,  in  a  state  of  mind 
which  he  only  who  compares  the  wretchedness  of 
guilt  within  him  with  the  happiness  of  former  inno- 
cence, can  truly  feel.  He  said  he  never  left  the  place 
without  increased  fears  of  futurity,  associated  as  he 
was,  although  I  believe  by  force,  with  a  band  of  the 
most  desperate  villains  that  ever  annoyed  the  Flor- 
ida coast.  So  deeply  moved  was  he  by  the  notes  of 
any  bird,  and  especially  those  of  a  dove,  the  only 
soothing  sounds  he  ever  heard  during  his  life  of  hor- 
rors, that  through  these  plaintive  notes,  and  them 
alone,  he  was  induced  to  escape  from  his  vessel, 
abandon  his  turbulent  companions,  and  return  to  a 
family  deploring  his  absence.  After  paying  a  part- 
ing visit  to  those  wells,  and  listening  once  more  to 
the  cooings  of  the  Zenaida  dove,  he  poured  out  his 
soul  in  supplication  for  mercy,  and  once  more  be- 
came, what  one  has  said  to  be  the  noblest  work 
of  God,  an  honest  man.  His  escape  was  effected 
amidst  difficulties  and  dangers,  but  no  danger  seemed 
to  him  comparable  with  the  danger  of  one's  living  in 
violation  of  human  and  Divine  laws ;  and  he  now 
lives  in  peace  in  the  midst  of  his  friends."  * 

*  Qnoted  in  the  New  Jernsalem  Majrnzine,  March.  1842. 


96  THE    SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

We  should  even  suspect  the  genuineness  of  that 
conversion  which  did  not  reawaken  these  spiritual 
states  of  childhood.  It  was  produced,  we  should 
fear,  solely  by  the  terrors  of  hell,  and  not  by  the 
more  sweet  and  tender  calls  of  God's  spirit,  and 
the  result  would  be  the  austerity  of  the  bigot,  and 
not  the-  spirit  of  the  child.*  Such  conversion  is 
an  angular  turn  in  one's  history,  an  arbitrary  fact 
forced  upon  him,  having  no  genial  connection  with 
his  past  and  his  future.  All  the  past  is  rejected 
as  worthless,  and  along  with  it  the  gales  that  come 
from  the  climes  of  morning,  and  "  breathe  a  second 
spring."  It  is  not  so  of  conversions  which  are  true 
and  genial.  As  we  journey  from  the  East,  we  de- 
scend into  the*  vale  of  shadows,  but  the  regions  of 
the  dawn  do  not  quite  disappear.  We  still  catch 
gleams  of  the  golden  sunlight  on  the  orient  hills.  It 
is  a  most  interesting  and  significant  fact,  that  in  that 
old  age  which  is  pious  and  serene,  and  in  which  the 
work  of  regeneration  approaches  its  consummation, 
the  memories  of  childhood  are  more  distinct  and 
vivid  than  of  the  long  intervening  years,  so  that  the 

*  "  Men  laugh  at  the  falsehoods  imposed  on  them  during  their  child- 
hood, because  they  are  not  good  and  wise  enough  to  contemplate  the 
past  in  the  present,  and  so  to  produce,  by  a  virtuous  and  thoughtful  sen- 
sibility, that  continuity  in  their  self-consciousness  which  nature  has 
made  the  law  of  their  animal  life.  Ingratitude,  sensuality,  and  hard- 
ness of  heart,  all  flow  from  this  source.  Men  are  ungrateful  to  others, 
only  when  they  have  ceased  to  look  back  on  their  former  selves  with 
joy  and  tenderness.  They  exist  in  fragments.  Annihilated  as  to  the 
past,  they  are  dead  to  the  future,  or  seek  for  the  proofs  of  it  everywhere, 
only  (where  alone  it  can  be  found)  in  themselves." —  COLERIDGK. 


THE   PEIMAL   INNOCENCE.  97 

extremes  of  life  are  brought  into  nearest  relationship 
with  each  other.  Even,  then,  if  we  lose  sight  of  the 
spot  whence  our  weary  march  commenced,  yet  when 
we  climb  the  western  summits  and  look  back,  that 
spot  comes  into  view  again ;  and  though  the  space 
between  were  Iqng  and  dreary,  yet  at  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  our  course  are  the  peaks  that  jut  out 
of  time  into  eternity,  in  full  view  of  each  other  and 
with  the  light  of  heaven  playing  on  their  summits. 

We  suppose  no  Christian  doubts  that  the  Saviour 
of  men  clothed  himself  in  our  weak  and  suffering 
nature,  that,  in  all  its  weakness  and  all  its  suffering, 
sympathy  and  succor  might  come  to  it  out  of  his 
divine  compassion.  He  made  the  divine  grace  avail- 
able to  us  in  every  possible  stage  of  our  pilgrimage. 
It  is  a  question,' then,  well  worthy  the  attention  of 
those  who  think  childhood  is  to  be  kept  for  future 
repentance,  and  is  expected,  meanwhile,  to  run  into 
all  kinds  of  depravity,  whether  Christ  is  indeed 
an  all-sufficient  Saviour,  and  whether  his  dispen- 
sation of  grace  is  wide  enough  to  span  our  whole 
existence  ?  And  why  did  he  become  not  only  man, 
but  also  a  little  child  ?  Why  did  he  "wrap  the  cloud 
of  infancy  around  him,"  except  that  he  might  hold 
undisturbed  communion  with  our  "  simplicity." 
Why,  but  to  pass  through  the  whole  circle  of  human 
wants,  desires,  and  sufferings,  and  take  up  every 
portion  of  human  experience  into  his  own,  that  no 
period  or  condition  of  life  should  be  bereft  of  the 
aid  of  the  great  Mediator?  How  strange  the  notion, 
that,  while  he  helps  the  mature  and  the  strong,  the 

9 


98  THE    SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

helpless  little  ones  he  leaves  as  orphans !  But  no ; 
the  Dove's  white  wings  also  hover  over  them,  and 
shed  stainless  glories  upon  them,  and  the  Lamb  of 
God,  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  is  es- 
pecially with  the  infant  and  the  little  child  to  en- 
sphere them  in  his  own  innocence  and  purity. 

The  Saviour  declared  of  little  children,  that  of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  that  whoever  receives 
that  kingdom  must  receive  it  as  a  little  child.  We 
quote  the  following,  not  only  for  its  prophetic  insight, 
but  as  the  best  exposition  that  we  can  find  among 
the  "  commentators  "  of  the  Saviour's  language. 

"  Such  hues  from  the  celestial  urn 
Were  wont  to  stream  before  mine  eye, 
Where'er  I  wandered  in  the  morn 
Of  blissful  infancy. 
This  glimpse  of  glory,  why  renewed  ? 
Nay,  rather  speak  with  gratitude, 
For  if  a  portion  of  those  gleams 
Survived,  't  was  only  in  my  dreams. 
Dread  Power !  whom  peace  and  calmness  serve 
No  less  than  nature's  threatening  voice, 
If  aught  unworthy  be  my  choice, 
From  thee  if  I  would  swerve, 
O,  let  thy  grace  remind  me  of  the  light, 
Full  early  lost,  and  fruitlessly  deplored, 
Which  at  this  moment  on  my  waking  sight 
Appears  to  shine,  by  miracle  restored ! "  * 

*  See  Wordsworth's  incomparable  "  Evening  Ode." 


CHAPTER    V. 

LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS. 
"  Haunted  for  ever  by  the  Eternal  Mind." 

THE  spiritual  nature  in  man,  answering  to  the 
spirit-world  to  which  he  is  destined,  and  in  which 
he  already  lives,  is  hardly  less  perceptible  in  his 
most  fallen  state,  than  in  his  state  of  primal  inno- 
cence. We  will  not  say  that  he  may  not  fall  so 
low  that  the  Spirit  shall  cease  to  strive  with  him.  and 
the  inward  ear  shall  be  deaf  to  the  heavenly  voices. 
The  Saviour  speaks  of  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
in  contrast  with  the  sin  against  the  Son  of  man.* 
The  last  might  be  forgiven,  the  first  never.  The 
careful  reader  of  the  New  Testament  knows  very 
well,  that  the  terms  "  Christ"  and  "  the  Son  of  man  " 
are  often  used  representatively  for  Christianity  itself, 
or  the  system  of  truth  which  Christ  embodied  and 
revealed.  The  Holy  Ghost,  on  the  other  hand,  de- 
scribes, as  we  have  seen,  an  influence  through  man's 
inmost  being,  the  pulses  of  divine  life  through  the 
centre  and  core  of  his  heart.  The  first  is  truth  pre- 

•  Matt.  xii.  31. 


100  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

sented  from  without,  —  the  other  is  the  divine  love 
that  vibrates  through  the  universal  soul.  Truth 
presented  from  without  may  be  rejected,  and  yet  one 
may  be  saved,  for  the  error  may  lie  no  deeper  than 
the  understanding.  Not  so  when  the  pulses  of  the  di- 
vine life  shall  cease  to  beat  within,  for  then  the  heart 
changes  into  the  insensibility  of  flint,  and  nothing 
can  melt  it  again.  Therefore  he  who  rejecteth  Di- 
vine Truth  may  be  forgiven,  but  he  who  rejecteth 
the  Holy  Ghost  out  of  his  heart  hath  no  forgiveness, 
for  he  hath  rejected  the  sovereign  agency  in  his  re- 
demption. The  first  sin  the  Church  has  been  swift 
to  punish,  while  in  more  than  one  stage  of  her  his- 
tory, by  killing  that  life  out  of  which  bloom  the 
charities  and  humanities,  she  has  herself,  like  the 
Jews  of  old,  fallen  into  the  last,  most  deadly  of  all 
heresies. 

But  these  belong  to  that  stage  of  man's  history, 
or  those  periods  of  the  world,  where  guilt  reaches 
its  culmination.  They  imply  still,  that  man  is  an 
organized  recipient  of  life  from  God,  and  that  guilt 
and  sin  only  in  their  ultimate  results  can  destroy  that 
last  tender  place  in  the  soul,  through  which  come  the 
pulse-beats  from  the  eternal  love. 

The  state  of  worldly  indifference  is  not  a  state  of 
repose.  The  mind  is  tormented  with  ideals  of  a  bet- 
ter state,  and  the  heart  is  conscious  of  deep  wants 
that  are  never  satisfied.  How  could  this  be,  unless 
the  dreary  present  saw  something  in  contrast  with  it- 
self ;  unless  the  splendors  of  immortality  let  fall  their 
struggling  beams  through  the  envelopments  of  world- 


LIGHT   IN   DARKNESS.  101 

ly  insensibility.  They  sleep,  "  perhaps  to  dream," 
and  dreams  of  a  bliss  unrealized  disturb  the  slumbers 
that  else  were  the  slumbers  of  death.  Every  sigh 
for  a  better  life  is  the  Come  up  hither  of  the  glorious 
multitude,  whose  invitations  fall  down  into  the  soul 
and  rise  up  again  in  never-ceasing  echoes.  This 
could  not  be  unless  the  mind  opened  inward  towards 
a  spirit-realm,  and  voices  more  than  mortal  talked 
along  the  solemn  avenue. 

Even  the  hardiest  unbelief  has  those  doubts  and 
misgivings  which  come  from  the  angel-voices  that 
will  not  quite  be  driven  out,  or  from  that  Divine 
Word  which  shineth  in  the  darkness,  though  the 
darkness  comprehendeth  it  not.  Those  who  thought 
they  had  convinced  themselves  that  the  eternal  Past 
and  the  eternal  Future  were  regions  of  blank  noth- 
ingness, and  the  questions  Whence?  and  Whither? 
no  other  than  if  you  shouted  into  a  chasm,  have 
found  that  some  new  experience  opened  unknown 
depths  within  them,  and  brought  new  faculties  into 
exercise,  and  then  beyond  the  chasm  the  Delectable 
Mountains  rise  clearly  on  the  sight.  Unbelief  is  sel- 
dom satisfied  with  its  creed  of  denials,  so  that 
through  its  regions  of  desolation  the  pilgrim  often 
travels  to  the  most  unshaken  ground  of  his  faith. 
How  could  this  be,  unless  a  spiritual  world  were  al- 
ready acting  upon  his  spiritual  nature  ?  How  could 
the  spiritual  faculties  awake,  whether  they  would  or 
no,  and  give  out  the  Memnon  sounds,  unless  smitten 
with  beams  from  other  worlds,  and  made  responsive 
to  unearthly  melodies  ?  If  the  light  comes  not  to 


THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

bless  and  to  save,  it  will  come  at  awful  intervals,  like 
flashes  of  lightning  at  midnight,  to  make  the  dark- 
ness visible.  Perhaps  there  is  not  a  more  significant 
passage  in  religious  literature,  than  the  suppressed 
passage  of  Mr.  Hume,  where  he  describes  the  in- 
fluence of  his  speculations.  He  surveys  the  habita- 
tion which,  with  infinite  logical  skill,  he  has  builded 
about  him,  and  he  starts  with  horror  at  sight  of  the 
gloomy  and  vacant  chambers.  "  I  am  astonished 
and  affrighted  at  the  forlorn  solitude  in  which  I  am 
placed  by  my  philosophy.  When  I  look  about,  I  see 
on  every  side  dispute,  contradiction,  and  distraction. 
When  I  turn  my  eyes  inward,  I  find  nothing  but 
doubt  and  ignorance.  Where  am  I,  and  what  ? 
From  what  causes  do  I  derive  existence,  and  to 
what  condition  do  I  return  ?  I  am  confounded  with 
these  questions,  and  I  begin  to  fancy  myself  in  the 
most  deplorable  condition  imaginable,  environed  in 
the  deepest  darkness."  The  desolation  and  the  emp- 
tiness are  seen  and  felt,  but  they  could  not  have  been, 
except  in  contrast  with  a  light  too  early  lost,  or  by 
some  star  not  yet  gone  down  in  the  sky. 

Not  indifference  and  unbelief  alone,  but  con- 
firmed impenitence  and  guilt,  are  alike  illustrative  of 
the  truth  in  hand.  The  darkness  of  the  hardened 
transgressor  is  not  solid  and  uniform.  It  lies  be- 
tween spaces  of  light.  It  is  flecked  with  sunbeams, 
and  because  he  will  not  follow  the  light,  it  only 
makes  his  night  more  baleful.  What  mean  the 
forebodings  that  visit  his  pillow  when  this  outward 
scene  is  withdrawn,  unless  at  that  hour  the  forms 


LIGHT    IN    DARKNESS.  103 

of  another  world  are  flinging  their  giant  shadows 
upon  his  spirit  ?  And  what  are  the  perturbations  of 
his  mind,  but  that  which  some  one  has  finely  de- 
scribed as  the  tremblings  of  the  scale  of  Divine  Jus- 
tice ?  The  Holy  Spirit  comes  in  showers  of  grace 
to  those  who  welcome  it  and  follow  its  light,  but  to 
those  who  do  not,  it  turns  to  showers  of  fire.  For 
the  conflict  in  the  soul  of  guilt  is  none  other  than 
hereditary  and  acquired  corruption,  seen  and  felt  in 
awful  contrast  with  the  Perfect  Law,  the  everlasting 
Right.  This  contrast  could  not  be  effected,  unless 
the  divine  sphere  of  purity  reached  the  soul,  and 
produced  the  avenging  consciousness  of  violated 
justice ;  unless  some  drops  of  divine  light  fell  upon 
the  conscience ;  unless  the  absolute  law  shone  down 
through  the  soul,  and  shot  through  the  moral  nature 
the  arrowy  lightnings  of  remorse. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

DISTINCTIONS. 


"  I  am  sure  there  Is  a  common  spirit  that  plays  within  us,  yet  makes  no  part  of 
as,  and  it  is  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  the  fire  and  scintillation  of  that  noble  and  mighty 
essence  which  is  the  life  and  radical  heat  of  spirit  and  those  essences  that  know  not 
the  virtue  of  the  sun,  —  a  fire  quite  contrary  to  the  fire  of  hell.  This  is  that  gentle 
heat  that  brooded  on  the  waters  and  in  six  days  hatched  the  world :  this  is  that  irra- 
diation that  dispels  the  mists  of  hell,  the  clouds  of  fear,  horror,  despair,  and  pre- 
serves the  region  of  the  mind  in  serenity.  Whoever  feels  not  the  warm  gale  and 
gentle  ventilation  of  this  spirit,  (though  I  feel  his  pulse,)  I  dare  not  say  he  lives."  — 
SIB  THOMAS  BROWNE. 


IT  results  from  the  foregoing  argument,  that  there 
is  in  human  nature  an  inborn  capacity  for  goodness, 
virtue,  and  holiness,  since  by  its  very  constitution  it 
is  made,  from  the  beginning,  receptive  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  and  opens  inward  towards  the  influence  of  a 
spiritual  world.  Hereditary  corruption  may  gather 
around  this  inborn  capacity,  and  human  nature  may 
be  filled  with  the  germs  of  all  evil ;  still,  through  the 
inmost  recesses  of  the  soul  God  is  always  speaking, 
always  operating,  always  waiting  to  be  received. 
This  is  the  strength  which  is  always  available  to 
human  weakness,  this  is  the  consuming  fire  which 
fills  the  souls  of  the  guilty  with  corroding  memories. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once,  that  this  is  a  very  different 
doctrine  from  that  which  gives  to  human  nature 


DISTINCTIONS.  105 

original  and  independent  powers  for  virtue  and  prog- 
ress. Human  nature  is  sometimes  represented  as 
capable  of  self-development,  through  its  own  sepa- 
rate resources.  Or  yet  again,  as  a  spark  struck  out 
from  the  Divinity,  to  shine  ever  afterward  through  its 
own  unborrowed  effulgence.  Man,  like  God,  has  the 
power  of  originating  truth  and  goodness,  through 
the  independent  exercise  of  his  own  faculties. 

We  represent,  on  the  other  hand,  that  man  no 
more  originates  truth  and  virtue,  than  the  plant  orig- 
inates the  sunshine  in  which  it  warms  and  expands. 
Like  the  plant,  which  is  an  organism  to  receive  the 
light  and  the  heat  of  the  solar  beams,  and  through 
them  to  be  clothed  in  glories  more  rich  and  varied 
that  those  of  the  robes  of  Solomon,  so  the  human 
soul  is  an  organism  to  receive  divine  light  and  in- 
fluence, and  through  that  to  grow  into  all  the  graces 
and  glories  of  Christian  excellence.  If  the  light  were 
put  out  in  the  heavens,  all  the  beauty  would  vanish 
from  the  many-colored  landscape,  and  darkness  fall 
upon  the  fields  like  a  pall.  So  if  at  any  moment 
human  nature  were  cut  off  from  the  Eternal  Light, 
all  the  excellences  and  graces  which  make  up  the 
scenery  of  the  moral  world  would  vanish  in  uniform 
night. 

We  distinguish,  then,  between  an  original  capacity 
for  goodness  and  original  goodness  itself;  between 
the  power  of  originating  truth  and  the  capacity  of 
receiving  truth  and  being  formed  thereby  into  its  re- 
splendent image.  And  we  hope  to  make  it  appear 
that  this  distinction  is  of  such  vital  importance,  that 


106  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

there  is  no  true  progress  unless  it  be  kept  steadily  in 
view. 

Let  one  start,  then,  with  the  assurance  that  moral 
excellence  is  self-development  out  of  an  original 
fund  of  goodness  deposited  in  human  nature,  the  ex- 
ercise of  an  independent  faculty  of  his  own.  It  re- 
sults inevitably  from  this,  that  all  culture  will  start 
from  self  and  centre  around  it,  and  have  self-exalta- 
tion for  its  object.  It  results  just  as  inevitably,  that 
all  the  pride  of  the  natural  man  will  be  excited  and 
developed,  and  intellectual  culture  and  Teligious 
forms  and  ceremonies  will  serve  alike  to  inflame  its 
fires.  The  dignity  of  human  nature  will  consist,  not 
in  its  capacity  to  receive  the  Divine  Image,  as  the 
placid  and  lowly  lake  receives  the  glowing  skies  into 
its  tranquil  deeps,  but  in  its  power  of  exhibiting  a 
dignity  and  splendor  out  of  itself,  which  resemble 
the  splendors  of  the  Godhead.  The  human  soul  will 
seem  to  itself  a  portion  of  the  Divinity,  and  sufficient 
unto  itself  for  all  its  progress  and  culture.  What- 
ever virtues  and  moralities  are  put  on,  they  are  but 
the  exhibitions  of  self;  whatever  be  the  forms  of  de- 
votion, they  are  but  the  splendid  liturgy  that  "  wafts 
perfume  to  pride."  These  moralities  and  devotions 
will  be  lifeless,  and  they  will  only  serve  to  wrap 
round  and  decorate  the  corruption  of  the  natural  man, 
a  corruption  that  is  never  subdued  and  never  re- 
moved. Hence  there  is  so  much  of  self-culture  with- 
out self-renovation,  so  much  of  outward  conformity 
where  there  is  no  inward  life,  so  much  of  natural  de- 
pravity that  lurks  under  the  vain  disguises  of  Chris- 


DISTINCTIONS.  107 

tian  civilization.  That  which  is  God-given,  man 
claims  as  his  own,  and  turns  to  his  own  private  uses. 
He  steals  the  eternal  fires.  The  virtues  are  his  own  ; 
they  come  not  from  hourly  acknowledgment  and 
sell-surrender.  There  can  be  no  morality  which 
shall  be  redolent  of  the  divine  lite  within,  no  regener- 
ation, no  worship  that  shall  be  any  better  than  gild- 
ed mockery,  until  men  in  spiritual  things  a.s  well 
as  natural  shall  cease  to  violate  the  awful  command, 

"  THOU    SHALT    NOT    STEAL." 

In  contrast  with  these  ideas,  and  the  culture  which 
grows  out  of  them,  we  put  forward  the  doctrine  that 
the  Divine  Spirit,  though  immanent  in  man,  is  not  a 
part  of  man,  not  a  separate  faculty  of  his  own.  He 
may  not  appropriate  the  empyrean  light,  and  claim  it 
as  his,  for  then  the  light  being  shut  in  becomes  dark- 
ness, and  the  divine  voice,  being  confounded  with 
his  own  instincts,  is  changed  into  babblements  and 
lies.  On  the  other  hand,  the  source  of  this  Light 
must  be  profoundly  acknowledged,  and  our  daily  de- 
pendence upon  it.  Then  it  stands  apart  in  its  awful 
sanctity  and  authority :  we  dare  not  steal  it  and 
appropriate  it,  but  we  bow  before  it  in  lowly  surren- 
der. Not  self,  but  God,  then  becomes  the  radiant 
centre  of  all  our  thoughts.  Conscience  is  not  now 
a  self-moving  power,  but  a  capacity  through  which 
a  Power  wrhich  is  out  of  us  and  above  us  sends  its 
eternal  utterances  into  our  inmost  being,  showing 
our  own  corruptions  in  mournful  contrast  with  the 
Absolute  Purity  and  Excellence.  Then  we  do  not 
attempt  to  bring  down  the  Divine  Spirit  to  the  level 


108  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

of  our  own  powers,  but  we  suffer  it  to  lift  us  up  into 
the  circle  of  its  own  radiance :  we  do  not  impress  it 
into  the  service  of  our  own  interest  and  pride,  but 
we  suffer  it  to  abase  our  pride,  and  we  sacrifice  all 
our  interests  to  its  behests.  Then  we  do  not  con- 
found its  voice  with  the  suggestions  of  our  own  pas- 
sions, but  we  suffer  it  to  cleanse  away  our  passions 
and  bathe  our  souls  in  its  all-entrancing  beauty. 

Coleridge  has  somewhere  described  a  man  who 
used  to  take  off  his  hat  with  great  demonstrations  of 
respect  and  deference  whenever  he  spoke  of  himself. 
Perhaps  there  was  more  method  in  his  madness 
than  might  at  first  appear.  Let  the  idea  of  the  Di- 
vine Personality  be  lost,  and  then  God  will  be 
merged  in  nature  or  in  man.  The  universal  reason 
becomes  itself  the  Divinity,  and  first  obtains  imper- 
sonation in  individual  men.  So  the  creature's  per- 
sonal attributes  become  divine,  and  self-contempla- 
tion is  the  highest  devotion,  and  self-worship  is  his 
daily  ritual.  Not  the  surrender  of  all  his  powers  to 
the  one  Infinite  Person  to  be  shaped  anew  by  its 
sovereign  and  plastic  influence,  but  the  exaltation 
of  those  powers  to  the  place  of  God  when  most  they 
need  strength,  and  guidance,  and  renovation,  —  this 
becomes  the  characteristic  of  self-culture.  Then 
one's  own  cognitions  are  the  supreme  authority  and 
his  own  utterances  the  infallible  oracle.  "  Ye  shall 
be  as  gods,"  knowing  good  and  evil,  through  self- 
illumination.  And  these  are  the  gods  from  whose 
afflatus  come  confused  prophesyings,  which  throw 
the  world  into  bewilderment,  or  fill  the  air  with  the 


DISTINCTIONS.  109 

babblings  of  strange  tongues.  This  is  the  religion 
for  which  the  man  in  Coleridge  instituted  the  most 
appropriate  ceremonial.  But  the  light  within  is  not 
the  scintillation  of  our  own  faculties,  but  the  truth 
streaming  in  upon  us  from  above,  and  claiming  to 
be  recognized  and  acknowledged.  God  did  not 
create  the  human  machinery  and  leave  it  to  work 
out  its  own  results.  He  CREATES  us  always  in  the 
present  time.  He  works  within  us  to  will  and  to  do 
of  his  good  pleasure,  on  the  single  condition  of  self- 
surrender.  This  apprehension  of  man's  relation  to 
the  Highest  is  calculated  to  beget  in  him  that  sweet 
sense  of  hourly  dependence  by  which  alone  he  is 
truly  exalted,  that  self-abasement  which  comes  of 
self-revelation,  that  state  of  hourly  prayer  whence 
rises  to  God  the  soul's  unceasing  hymn.  The  con- 
trast which  we  present,  therefore,  is  the  contrast 
between  self-exaltation  and  self-abandonment ;  be- 
tween the  arrogancy  of  pride  and  the  grace  of  hu- 
mility ;  between  the  attitude  of  self-sufficiency  and 
the  attitude  of  continual  prayer  ;  between  a  world- 
liness  decked  out  in  religious  forms  and  decencies, 
and  a  piety  that  warms  in  the  divine  effulgence; 
between  a  worship  that  centres  around  self,  and  a 
worship  that  brings  us  lowly  before  God ;  between 
a  soul  that  stands  in  the  cold  shimmer  of  its  own 
vanities,  and  a  soul  clothed  in  the  Divine  Beauty  as 
with  rainbows. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

TOTAL  DEPRAVITY. 

"  How,  it  is  inquired,  are  infants  regenerated  who  hare  no  knowledge  either 
of  good  or  evil  ?  We  reply,  that  the  work  of  God  is  not  yet  without  existence 
because  it  is  not  yet  observed  or  understood  by  us."  —  CALVIN. 

WE  are  not  at  all  anxious  to  keep  terms  with  the 
old  theologies,  much  less  to  gloss  over  any  real  dif- 
ferences between  falsehood  and  truth.  But  the  ter- 
minologies of  religion  become  so  vague  and  so  emp- 
tied of  their  primitive  meaning,  long  before  they  fall 
into  desuetude,  that  it  is  necessary  to  subject  them 
to  a  clear  analysis  to  see  for  what  ideas  they  stand, 
or  whether  they  stand  for  any.  It  is  a  fact  very  fa- 
miliar to  the  historian  of  opinions,  that  an  old  sys- 
tem of  theology  may  pass  clean  away,  and  a  very 
different  one  take  its  place,  without  the  least  change 
in  the  old  creeds  and  nomenclatures,  just  as  the 
Roman  republic  passed  into  the  empire,  and  liberty 
changed  into  despotism,  without  the  least  change  in 
the  forms  of  government.  Nay,  when  men  become 
secretly  conscious  that  the  ancient  faith  is  leaking 
out  of  its  symbols,  it  is  quite  observable  how  they 
cling  to  the  symbols  with  a  fiercer  dogmatism,  in 
order  to  elude  the  charge  of  innovation  and  heresy. 


TOTAL    DEPRAVITY.  Ill 

In  this  extreme  anxiety  to  preserve  the  husks  of 
dead  men's  thoughts,  it  may  come  to  pass  that  those 
whose  creeds  are  hostile  may  agree  substantially 
both  in  opinion  and  sentiment.  As  it  is  not  the 
husks,  but  their  contents,  that  we  care  for,  we  wish 
to  compare  our  doctrine  with  that  which  may  be 
supposed  to  be  current  under  the  term  "  total  de- 
pravity." 

We  classify  the  internal  forces  of  human  nature 
under  a  threefold  division.  Under  the  first  division  we 
place  those  which  are  evil  in  themselves,  and  only 
evil ;  those  which  do  not  admit  of  being  changed  into 
any  thing  good,  but  which  require  to  be  expunged 
altogether.  Among  these  are  those  corrupt  acquired 
instincts  which  have- become  the  inheritance  of  fallen 
man,  hatred,  malice,  revenge,  deceit,  cruelty,  ac- 
quired lusts,  and  selfishness  in  its  myriad  forms. 
These,  we  have  seen,  when  once  acquired,  are  trans- 
missive  from  one  generation  to  another.  They  are 
not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can 
be,  because  in  their  essential  character  they  are  the 
very  opposites  of  the  Divine  nature.  They  are  that 
"body  of  death"  which  all  along  through  the  centu- 
ries has  formed  and  stratified  upon  our  burdened  hu- 
manity, and  which  can  in  no  wise  be  incorporated 
with  it,  but  which  must  be  rolled  off,  as  the  burden  of 
the  pilgrim  rolled  away  when  he  came  to  the  cross. 
Under  the  second  division  we  place  the  natural  ap- 
petites, affections,  and  powers ;  and  these  are  good  or 
evil  according  to  their  ultimate  ends,  according  to 
the  service  in  which  they  are  used.  Under  the  con- 


112  THE   SPIRITUAL   NATURE. 

trol  of  the  Divine  law  they  are  good,  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  selfish  nature  they  are  evil.  The  appe- 
tites are  good  when  they  serve  the  higher  nature; 
when  their  end  is  self-indulgence,  they  degenerate 
into  brutal  sensuality.  Family  affections  are  good 
and  pure  when  their  end  is  mutual  improvement 
and  aid ;  bad  when  their  end  is  mutual  indulgence 
and  the  exhibition  of  family  pomp  and  pride.  Noth- 
ing can  be  so  disinterested  as  a  mother's  love. 
Nothing,  again,  can  be  so  intensely  and  intolerably 
selfish.  Family  affections  bring  us  into  a  more 
tender  and  loving  fellowship  with  all  the  families 
of  men,  or  else  they  are  the  forms  of  a  noxious  self- 
love,  and  they  differ  from  those  of  a  gross  personal 
selfishness  only  because  they  reflect  its  hateful  fires 
in  a  circle  removed  one  degree  further  from  us.  Men 
will  even  commit  greater  wrongs  to  aggrandize  their 
families  than  they  would  to  aggrandize  themselves. 
Intellect,  when  enlisted  in  the  service  of  God  and  hu- 
manity, pouring  light  upon  man's  path  to  guide  him 
to  happiness  and  to  heaven  and  lead  on  the  groping 
nations  to  their  millennial  era,  is  a  sublime  and  benef- 
icent power.  When  enlisted  in  the  service  of  wrong, 
having  private  honor  and  advantage  for  its  end,  and 
leading  astray  by  cunning  arts  and  glozing  sophistries, 
it  is  the  very  attribute  of  archangel  ruined.  These 
natural  powers,  therefore,  whether  intellectual  or 
affectional,  are  good  or  bad  according  to  the  motive 
force  by  which  they  are  impelled  and  guided.  Be- 
tween God  on  the  one  hand,  and  self  on  the  other, 
they  hang  and  tremble ;  but  it  is  the  tendency  of 


TOTAL    DEPRAVITY.  113 

hereditary  corruption  to  make  them  sway  in  the 
wrong  direction  with  cumulative  weight ;  to  make 
the  balance  come  down  on  the  side  of  evil.  But 
under  the  third  division  we  place  those  sacred  ca- 
pacities which  are  the  crowning  glory  of  human  na- 
ture, the  capacity  already  described,  of  receiving  the 
Divine  Light  and  Life  and  making  God  operative  in 
man.  This  capacity  does  not  "  tend  to  all  evil,"  but 
to  all  good,  since  it  is  the  ground  of  the  regeneration 
of  the  individual  and  the  progress  of  the  race.  It 
implies  too  the  power  of  choice ;  choice  between  the 
agencies  which  we  will  suffer  to  shape  our  charac- 
ters ;  choice  between  the  influence  that  comes  down 
to  draw  us  into  the  heavens  by  its  sweet  persuasions, 
and  the  influence  that  comes  up  from  below  and 
seeks  to  draw  us  downward  by  its  infernal  sorcer- 
ies,—  that  power  of  choice  in  which  consists  the 
moral  agency  of  man. 

Now  if  by  the  term  human  nature  we  mean  to 
include  the  forces  belonging  to  the  first  two  divis- 
ions here  named,  and  exclude  the  last,  doubtless  it 
is  inclined  to  all  evil,  and  averse  to  all  good.  Man 
shut  in  to  himself  would  be  abandoned  to  all  deprav- 
ity. There  is  hereditary  corruption  that  sways  him 
from  behind,  and  then  his  natural  powers  and  affec- 
tions have  lost  that  equipoise  which  they  had  in 
primitive  man,  and  are  deflected  towards  the  service 
of  the  selfish  nature.  Appetite,  natural  affection, 
and  the  natural  reason  would  all  go  over  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  evil  powers,  and  toil  in  the  bondage  of 
sin.  On  their  swift  and  downward  course  they 
10  • 


114  THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 

would  rush  into  the  most  frightful  outbreaks  of  wick- 
edness. But  if  by  human  nature  we  mean  the  sum 
total  of  all  its  capacities,  and  therefore  its  receptivity 
of  the  Divine  force  itself,  —  its  capacities  that  open 
inward  towards  immensity  and  immortality,  and  of 
choosing  the  guidance  of  that  power  that  shall  bear  it 
sun-ward  like  the  eagle,  —  then  we  ought  to  abandon 
the  word  "  total "  in  describing  its  depravity,  as  lead- 
ing to  confusion  of  thought  and  unnecessary  misun- 
derstandings. Even  that  theory  of  conversion  which 
makes  it  instantaneous  would  logically  presuppose 
an  inborn  capacity  to  be  converted.  We  take  it, 
that  it  does  not  quite  mean  to  confound  man  with 
brutes  and  fiends,  and  that  there  is  some  reason  in 
the  nature  of  things  why  sovereign  grace  should  se- 
lect human  beings  for  its  objects  rather  than  wolves 
and  tigers.  Even,  then,  if  the  Holy  Spirit  were  not, 
as  we  contend,  the  divine  fire  that  warms  in  our 
heart  of  hearts,  and  from  the  dawn  of  existence 
seeks  to  kindle  within  us  all  holy  affections,  —  even 
if  the  orbit  of  our  being  lay  through  spaces  of  total 
blackness  until  some  sudden  light  came  blazing 
through  it  like  a  comet,  —  still  we  must  be  so  or- 
ganized as  to  be  receptive  of  the  light  when  it  comes 
and  be  acted  upon  beneficently  by  the  new  power 
whenever  it  strikes  us.  We  do  not  see,  then,  that 
our  account  of  human  nature  differs  from  that  of 
these  theorists,  when  consistent  with  themselves, 
so  much  in  regard  to  its  real  and  intrinsic  powers 
and  propensities  as  in  regard  to  the  Divine  plan  of 
acting  upon  them.  This  difference,  we  will  not  dis- 


TOTAL   DEPRAVITY.  115 

guise,  is  sufficiently  wide,  —  the  difference  of  suppos- 
ing the  child  to  be  born  into  a  state  of  the  dreariest 
orphanage,  to  do  nothing  but  sin  up  to  the  era  of  his 
conversion,  and  to  be  educated  for  repentance,  and  of 
supposing  him  at  first  the  child  of  a  Father  whose 
claiming  voice  he  ever  hears,  and  whose  spirit,  unless 
rejected,  ever  shines  within  him  "  as  glows  the  sun- 
beam in  a  drop  of  dew."  It  is  the  difference  be- 
tween a  regeneration  which  may  commence  with 
the  very  dawn  of  being  and  prevent  the  leprosy  from 
ever  appearing  in  the  voluntary  life,  and  the  regener- 
ation that  finds  man  full  grown  in  evil,  and  lifts  him 
out  of  the  pool  of  sin,  and  attempts  to  bring  him  to 
life  as  you  bring  back  life  to  the  drowned,  which 
must  be  done,  if  at  all,  with  unutterable  pangs. 

Nor  yet,  again,  is  it  to  be  disguised,  that  some  of 
the  old  formulas  and  terminologies  exclude  from  the 
original  constitution  of  man  any  such  forces  and  ca- 
pacities as  we  have  placed  under  our  third  division. 
They  even  take  from  him  the  power  of  choosing  any 
thing  but  pollution,  and  the  capacity  itself  of  receiv- 
ing the  Holy  Spirit  is  only  the  result  of  a  new  crea- 
tion. Calvin  says  of  infants,  "  Though  they  have  not 
yet  produced  the  fruit  of  their  iniquity,  yet  they  have 
the  seed  of  sin  within  them  ;  even  their  whole  nature 
is  as  it  were  a  seed  of  sin,  and  therefore  cannot  but 
be  odious  and  abominable  to  God."  *  But  the  old 
formulas  themselves  become  flexile  to  the  all-reno- 
vating Spirit  that  sweeps  them  through,  and  dry 

*  Institutes,  Book  H.  Ch.  1,  Sec.  8. 


116 


THE    SPIRITUAL    NATURE. 


bodies  of  divinity  find  a  new  life  forming  under  the 
ribs  of  death.  No  matter  whether  the  ancient  sym- 
bols remain  or  not.  Unless  swept  away  by  God's 
reviving  breath,  they  will  be  warmed  and  bent  by  it, 
and  we  cannot  keep  out  of  them  the  plastic  spirit 
which  creates  all  things  new.  Those  who  thought 
they  were  ruling  opinions  with  an  iron  rod  find,  to 
their  surprise,  that  the  rod,  like  Aaron's,  has  "  bud- 
ded "  in  their  hands.  We  may  even  wake  up  some 
pleasant  morning,  and  find  that  we  have  written  out 
here  a  chapter  in  that  progressive  orthodoxy  which 
has  made  its  ancient  symbols  pliant  to  the  shape 
of  modern  ideas.  Whether  so  or  not,  God's  truth  is 
moving  surely  on  to  its  triumphs.  Those  petrifac- 
tions called  creeds,  the  cooling  down  of  the  religious 
sentiment  into  solid  crust,  cannot  contain  or  shut  in 
a  still  deeper  religious  sentiment  that  swells  beneath. 
Even  the  creed-makers  had  thoughts  and  inspira- 
tions which  could  not  be  condensed  into  the  formu- 
las, for  the  Eternal  Word  shone  through  them  as 
through  all.  Calvin  himself,  after  having  made  out 
that  infants  are  abominable  to  God,  goes  on  after- 
wards to  represent,  with  admirable  inconsistency, 
that  they  are  the  objects  of  the  Divine  love ;  *  for  the 
central  truth  of  the  Gospel  could  not  escape  him, 
that  God's  love  to  the  world  even  in  its  fallen  state 
was  the  reason  why  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son 
to  redeem  and  save  it.  And  Augustine  asserts  the 
identical  doctrine  which  in  this  chapter  we  have 

*  Institutes,  Book  II.  Ch.  16,  Sec.  1,  2. 


TOTAL   DEPRAVITY.  117 

aimed  to  develop  :  "  Wherefore  in  a  wonderful  and 
divine  manner  he  both  hated  us  and  loved  us  at  the 
same  time.  He  hated  us  as  being  different  from 
what  he  had  made  us ;  but  as  our  iniquity  had  not 
entirely  destroyed  Ms  work  in  us,  he  could  at  the 
same  time  in  every  one  of  us  hate  what  we  had 
done,  and  love  what  proceeded  from  himself" 


PART    III. 


THE    NEW    MAN. 


It   ANT  MAN   B«   IS    CHRIST,  HE    IS  A  HEW  CBEATION.  —  2  Cor.  V.  17. 

"  'T  is  a  new  life  :  thoughts  move  not  as  they  did, 
With  slow,  uncertain  steps  across  my  mind ; 
In  thronging  haste,  fast  pressing  on,  they  bid 
The  portals  open  to  the  viewless  Wind, 
Which  comes  not  save  when  in  the  dust  is  laid 
The  crown  of  pride  that  gilds  each  mortal  brow, 
And  from  before  our  vision  melting  fade 
The  heavens  and  earth,  —  their  walls  are  falling  now ! 
Fast  sweeping  on,  each  thought  claims  utterance  strong, 
Storm-lifted  waves  swift  rushing  to  the  shore ; 
On  from  the  sea  they  send  their  shouts  along, 
Back  from  the  cave-worn  rocks  their  thunders  roar,  — 
And  I  a  child  of  God,  by  Christ  made  free, 
Start  from  death's  slumbers  to  eternity."  —  JOKES  VERT. 


CHAPTER   I. 

REGENERATION. 


"  Host  of  us  are  fragments  and  divorces,  the  products  01  some  former  violence  or 
convulsion,  but  such  is  not  he  [the  new  man],  but  rather  a  fair  planet  on  which 
Eden  continues.  Things  to  us  the  most  irreconcilable  are  his  sweet  harmonies. 
He  is  most  wilful  when  he  is  doing  God's  will.  His  human  reason  is  most  independ- 
ent when  he  is  recipient  of  a  divine  revelation  ;  his  truth  and  God's  belong  all  the 
more  severely  to  each,  because  they  are  the  other's.  The  efforts  of  his  genius  are 
his  obedience  to  a  divine  commission Whatever  he  thinks  is  a  thought  en- 
riched ;  whatever  he  does  is  a  marriage  deed.  Thenceforth  his  doctrines  embodied 
and  illuminated  are  sights  and  sounds,  —  things  seen  and  heard."  —  J.  J.  G.  WIL- 
KINSON. 


WE  propose  now  to  display,  in  as  clear  a  light  as 
we  can,  the  nature  of  regeneration,  and  the  means 
by  which  it  is  accomplished.  We  devote  this  chap- 
ter to  the  first  of  these  topics,  —  Who  and  what  is 
the  new  man  ? 

We  trust  the  preceding  chapters  have  partly  an- 
ticipated the  answer,  and  rendered  the  path  of  our 
present  inquiry  open  and  clear.  Regeneration  im- 
plies three  things:  first,  a  cleansing  away  of  all 
hereditary  corruption  ;  secondly,  a  restoration  of  the 
natural  powers  and  affections  to  their  appropriate 
service,  or  changing  their  inclination  from  self  and 
making  them  incline  to  God  ;  thirdly,  receiving  the 
divine  life  through  those  capacities  that  open  up- 
ward towards  God,  and  towards  his  angels.  It  is 
11 


122  THE   NEW   MAN. 

obvious,  however,  that  the  divine  work  is  accom- 
plished in  an  order  exactly  the  reverse  of  the  one 
now  stated.  For  the  first  ground  of  our  regenera- 
tion is  the  spiritual  nature,  the  immanence  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  in  the  human  soul.  Its  commencing 
dawn  is  the  coming  on  of  that  light  that  visits  our 
infant  being,  until  God  shines  within  like  another 
sun,  diffusing  warmth  and  radiance  through  our 
whole  nature,  and  drawing  us  towards  himself  in 
the  bonds  of  an  all-attractive  love.  Then  God  be- 
comes the  prevailing  force  within  us,  and  he  bends 
our  natural  powers  towards  himself,  and  draws  them 
all  into  his  service.  Appetite,  affection,  intellect, 
active  powers,  all  yield  to  him  and  serve  him.  The 
end  of  animal  appetite  is  not  animal  pleasure,  but 
manly  development ;  the  end  of  parental  instinct  is 
not  its  own  indulgence,  but  the  highest  good  of  off- 
spring ;  intellect  serves  God  and  not  self,  and  genius 
no  longer  sings  war-songs  and  bacchanals,  but  is  the 
prophet  of  God's  hidden  truth,  and  lifts  its  hymn  to 
his  praise.  The  possessory  instinct  is  guided  to 
new  ends,  and  property  is  acquired  and  held,  not 
for  self-aggrandizement,  but  for  beneficent  activity 
and  useful  living.  All  the  instrumentalities  of  earth 
are  converted  into  a  means  for  the  highest  culture, 
and  the  highest  culture  is  a  solemn  preparation  to 
serve  God  and  humanity.  So  the  whole  object  of 
life  is  changed  ;  and  the  natural  powers,  whose  bal- 
ance inclined  towards  the  selfish  nature,  have  that 
balance  reversed  and  all  the  faculties  bend  towards 
God.  Lastly.  a\\  hereditary  evil  is  expelled,  —  that 


REGENERATION.  123 

• 

gang  of  lusts  and  passions,  and  the  brood  of  lies 
which  they  engender,  which  require  to  be  killed, 
since  they  cannot  be  converted ;  to  be  scourged  out  of 
the  temple,  since  they  cannot  be  made  fit  for  its 
service.  They  are  the  native  savages  that  must  not 
be  spared,  but  exterminated,  when  God's  chosen 
ones  come  in  to  take  possession.  They  are  what 
Paul  calls  the  "  old  man  with  its  lusts,"  which  is  to 
be  "  put  off,"  or  which  is  to  be  "  crucified "  and 
"  buried."  These  are  opposed  to  the  Divine  nature ; 
and  as  God  comes  within  us  with  growing  efful- 
gence and  power,  they  are  driven  out  before  him,  — 
not  without  man's  effort  and  cooperation.  It  is  the 
denial  of  these  evil  tempers  and  instincts,  that 
causes  the  struggle  in  his  nature,  and  costs  him 
painful  vigils  and  conflicts,  as  if  his  soul  were  the 
battle-ground  between  the  hosts  of  heaven  and  the 
hosts  of  hell.  But  victory  succeeds  to  victory,  and 
when  the  last  foe  is  slain,  he  walks  in  the  strength 
and  peace  of  God,  free  and  joyous  as  the  angels. 

This  spiritual  change,  when  all  its  inward  pro- 
cesses are  laid  open  and  displayed,  appears  as  the 
pilgrim's  progress  from  the  city  of  Destruction  to 
the  city  of  God.  And  here  let  us  guard  from  error. 
No  one  is  regenerated  unless  he  comes  to  something 
more  than  "indulging  a  hope,"  or  so  long  as  the 
land  of  promise  lies  off  in  the  distance,  and  is  not  a 
present  possession  and  fruition.  The  new  man  is 
not  one  who  has  got  some  mystic  title-deed  to  the 
heavenly  country  hereafter.  He  is  the  man  whose 
foot  already  is  planted  on  its  ground,  and  who 


124  THE    NEW    MAN. 

breathes  its  fragrance ;  into  whose  soul,  that  is, 
heaven  has  passed  and  is  passing  now.  For  the 
change  of  death  is  merely  external ;  it  only  removes 
our  fleshly  coverings.  It  does  not  remove  us;  it 
only  takes  off  a  veil.  The  natural  man,  with  his 
lusts  and  world-ward  inclinations  impelling  him  one 
way,  and  the  divine  force  acting  through  him  and 
impelling  him  another  way,  is  swaying  between 
heaven  and  hell.  He  chooses  between  these  two 
forces,  and  says  which  shall  draw  him  to  itself.  If 
he  chooses  wrong,  his  inmost  mind  passes  from 
change  downward  to  change,  until  it  is  moulded 
into  the  very  image  of  hell,  and  is  drawn  by  the 
most  secret  affinities  to  its  abodes.  Its  spirit 
breathes  upon  him  now ;  he  suffers  its  pains,  he 
keeps  carnival  with  its  horrid  jubilees,  its  gates  open 
on  his  soul,  he  descends  through  them  and  they  shut 
over  him,  and  death  only  comes  to  take  the  bandage 
from  his  eyes,  that  he  may  look  round  on  his  habita- 
tion and  his  home.  If  he  chooses  right,  then  his 
inmost  mind  changes  the  other  way,  drawn  up 
among  the  saints  and  the  seraphim  ;  heaven  draws 
around  his  spirit,  and  folds  him  in ;  he  breathes  its 
airs,  he  is  filled  with  its  harmonies  ;  he  hears  in  his 
own  moral  nature  its  chimes  hardly  mellowed  by 
distance  ;  he  holds  fellowship  with  its  shining  ones  ; 
and  death  by  and  by  unclogs  his  senses,  and  gives 
to  his  open  vision  the  land  of  peace.  The  great 
sentence,  Come,  ye  blessed !  and  Go,  ye  cursed !  is 
the  everlasting  law  which  is  executing  itself  every 
day  upon  us,  and  while  yet  in  the  flesh  we  get  wide 


REGENERATION.  125 

asunder  as  the  poles  with  the  impassable  gulf  be- 
tween. So,  then,  we  say  that  regeneration  is  obtain- 
ing possession,  for  it  is  passing  into  the  society  of 
the  redeemed,  which  on  earth  and  in  heaven  make 
but  one  communion,  And  if  any  one  should  object, 
that  it  is  not  given  to  man  here  on  the  earth  to  pass 
into  these  high  spiritual  frames,  or  pitch  his  tent  on 
this  mountain  of  golden  peace,  we  simply  take  issue 
upon  the  fact ;  for  we  know  those  and  read  of  those 
who  have  the  world  under  their  feet,  with  whom  the 
struggle  is  past  and  the  victory  won  ;  and  God's 
angels  are  with  them  as  "  a  camp  of  fire  around." 
Still,  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  the  work  of  regen- 
eration is  not  generally  consummated  here  ;  and  the 
present  condition  of  the  Church  and  society  and  ed- 
ucational systems  suggests  that  we  need  not  seek 
far  to  find  the  reasons.  But  we  are  here  describing 
what  regeneration  is  in  its  own  nature,  its  processes, 
and  its  consummation. 

Let  us  now  seek  for  some  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  regenerate  state.  And  we  premise,  that 
the  new  man  is  indicated  by  the  new  motives 
whence  all  his  actions  flow.  There  are  three  classes 
of  motives  by  which  we  are  impelled  to  seek  the 
paths  of  duty  and  obedience.  These  are  fear,  and 
h&pe,  and  love.  When  an  impenitent  man  first 
wakes  up  to  a  sense  of  his  danger,  the  first  motive 
that  impels  him  very  often  is  fear,  fear  of  the  dismal 
results  into  which  he  knows  he  is  plunging.  He 
feels  that  nothing  awaits  him  but  trouble  and  unrest 
as  he  sinks  away  into  darkness.  He  flies  to  religion 
11* 


126  THE   NEW   MAN. 

as  a  refuge  of  safety.  It  may  be  that  his  heart 
opens  up  its  mysteries  into  his  consciousness,  and 
its  uncleanness  lies  exposed  in  the  light  that  gleams 
from  above.  But  his  obedience  at  first  is  compelled 
and  outward.  At  best,  his  joys.-  and  raptures  come 
and  go,  and  do  not  pass  into  permanent  frames.  The 
Adam  of  consciousness  is  not  dead,  but  only  sleep- 
eth,  and  sometimes  it  wakes  again  with  terrible  en- 
ergy, and  prevails.  Still,  at  times  he  has  prelibations 
of  the  heavenly  peace  and  foreshadowings  of  a  bet- 
ter world.  And  here,  it  may  be,  through  genuine 
self-consecration  and  reliance  on  the  Divine  promise, 
he  begins  to  hope  for  heaven.  But  hope  of  reward, 
as  such,  is  not  a  motive  very  much  higher  than  the 
fear  of  punishment.  It  may  be,  and  often  is,  based 
on  delusions  and  fictions  in  theology,  before  there  is 
any  change  in  the  inward  man.  Reformation  is 
not  regeneration,  conformity  is  not  worship,  the 
wording  and  rewording  of  liturgies  is  not  prayer, 
and  hope  of  heaven  is  not  the  peace  of  its  com- 
mencing dawn.  Not  until  the  Spirit  abiding  within 
has  melted  the  soul  beneath  the  glow  of  the  Divine 
charms,  not  until  the  angel  band  of  heavenly  affec- 
tions comes  in,  and  the  gang  of  selfish  lusts  goes  out, 
do  old  things  pass  away  and  all  things  become 
new.  Then  begins  the  highest  motive-power,  which 
is  love;  for  he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God  and  knoweth 
him.  When  our  regeneration  is  consummated,  love 
expels  every  other  power,  and  reigns  supreme  and 
undivided.  Now  the  soul  hungers  and  thirsts  after 
righteousness,  as  for  daily  bread  and  for  living  waters. 


REGENERATION.  127 

Now  we  obey  the  commandments  because  we  love 
them,  and  it  is  our  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of 
the  Father.  Fear  is  cast  out ;  hope  of  reward  has 
no  place,  for  the  Divine  service  is  its  own  great  re- 
ward, its  own  exceeding  joy.  Obedience  is  sweeter 
to  the  soul  than  light  is  to  the  eye,  and  sin,  not  in 
its  consequences,  but  in  its  own  essential  nature,  is 
more  bitter  than  death,  and  more  loathsome  than 
the  grave.  Inclination  becomes  a  safe  and  unerring 
guide ;  for  to  do  right  we  have  only  to  follow  our 
impulses,  and  do  what  we  love.  We  follow  after 
duty  with  a  passion  and  an  appetite.  We  need  not 
reason  out  what  duty  is,  and  get  at  our  result 
through  uncertain  and  labyrinthine  windings.  We 
have  but  to  follow  our  desires,  since  we  cannot  de- 
sire what  is  wrong.  The  Holy  Spirit,  transfused 
through  all  our  faculties  and  all  our  cleansed  affec- 
tions, becomes  itself  an  instinct  of  our  being,  mak- 
ing the  soul  one  flaming  and  undivided  passion  that 
urges  on  to  its  object,  as  unerring  as  the  instinct 
that  urges  the  bee  to  her  cell.  Affection  and  truth 
are  one.  That  is  to  say,  truth  does  not  teach  one 
thing,  and  affection  crave  another.  Truth  shows  us 
the  way  we  love,  and  we  love  the  way  it  shows,  and 
so  affection  and  truth  are  one  principle  of  action, 
even  as  the  light  and  heat  make  one  ray  in  the  solar 
beams,  which  create  their  own  paradise  where  they 
fall.  Then  ceases  the  conflict  within.  There  is  no 
clashing  of  interest  with  interest,  no  balancing  of 
one  inclination  against  another,  for  none  other  force 
acts  within  us  than  God's  impelling  love.  There  is 


128  THE    NEW    MAN. 

no  self-denial,  because  there  is  no  self  to  be  denied. 
That  is  crucified  and  slain.  We  pass  into  that  high 
state  of  which  we  had  dreamed,  and  for  which  we 
had  sighed,  when  we  do  just  what  we  please,  and 
all  that  pleases  us  we  may  do  ;  when  we  have  no 
painful  duties  to  perform,  since  duty  is  the  glad 
motion,  the  spontaneous  play,  of  all  our  faculties. 

There  is  a  floating  philosophy  which  teaches  that 
the  impulses  and  intuitions  of  human  nature  are  a 
sure  guide,  because  they  are  the  inspirations  of  God 
in  humanity.  But  it  does  not  recognize  the  distinc- 
tion between  humanity  fallen  and  humanity  reno- 
vated, and  thus  it  is  liable  all  the  while  to  confound 
the  corrupt  instincts  of  the  natural  man  with  the 
clarified  affections  of  the  man  created  anew.  It  has 
no  rule  to  distinguish  hereditary  proclivities  to  evil 
from  the  divine  impulsions  which  move  us  after  he- 
reditary evil  is  extinguished.  It  makes  that  a  rule 
of  action  for  sinful  man,  which  can  be  a  safe  one 
only  for  the  redeemed.  It  has  no  analysis  that 
searches  us  and  cleaves  the  evil  from  the  good, 
setting  one  over  against  the  other  and  saying,  Avoid 
ye  that,  and  Follow  ye  this.  And  so  it  would  put 
us  on  the  fiery  waves  of  corrupt  desire,  and  let  us 
float  passively  along  to  destruction,  if  only  we  drift 
past  flowery  banks  and  spicy  groves  before  the  rapids 
begin.  It  confounds  human  nature  in  its  chaotic 
state  with  human  nature  distributed,  after  the  spirit 
has  brooded  upon  it  and  reduced  all  things  to  their 
class  and  order.  It  is  by  a  higher  and  a  self-revealing 
philosophy,  that  we  come,  through  self-denial,  to  that 


EEGENERATION.  129 

state  of  unchartered  freedom  in  which  there  is  no 
self  to  be  denied,  where  our  six  days  of  toil  and 
struggle  have  ended,  and  we  enter  on  our  sweet 
Sabbath  of  repose. 

The  regenerate  state,  again,  is  characterized  by  a 
new  kind  of  worship.  God  is  revealed  as  never 
before,  the  light  and  the  joy  of  our  whole  being. 
He  sees  nothing  in  us  now  that  he  does  not  love, 
for  he  sees  his  own  work  and  he  calls  it  good.  He 
glows  within  us  as  our  life  and  peace,  even  as  the 
sun  loves  to  look  into  the  placid  lake  and  make  his 
image  there.  We  pass  into  that  state  of  prayer 
which  cannot  be  translated  into  the  clumsy  vehicle 
of  words ;  that  still  communion,  to  which  a  ritual  is 
a  clog  and  a  burden  ;  that  devotion  which  knows  of 
no  declensions,  since  the  sun  that  warms  it  never 
sets.  Its  worship  is  not  the  worship  of  those  who 
meet  to  chafe  each  other's  zeal  that  is  flagging  and 
growing  cold,  and  who  leap  on  the  altar  and  cut 
themselves  with  knives,  because  the  fire  will  not 
come  down.  It  is  love  communing  with  love ;  the 
sons  of  God  shouting  for  joy,  their  worship  jubilant 
and  spontaneous  as  the  song  of  the  summer  bird 
on  the  airs  of  morning. 

The  regenerate  state  is  characterized  by  more  ex- 
ternal changes.  The  world  within  flings  its  hues 
and  colorings  over  the  world  without,  and  in  some 
sort  creates  it  anew.  The  natural  powers  and  fac- 
ulties, even  to  the  natural  body,  our  most  external 
envelopment  being  brought  into  the  service  of  the 
highest  sentiments,  conforming  to  the  divine  life 


130  THE    NEW    MAN. 

within,  and  made  pliant  to  its  touch,  are  transfig- 
ured by  it  and  reflect  its  glories.  We  have  often 
seen  how  heavenly  affections  will  create  a  new  face 
under  the  ugliest  features;  how  the  members  yielded 
to  unrighteousness  and  made  flexile  to  the  deforming 
passions  are  moulded  by  them,  till  the  whole  man 
becomes  the  image  of  the  sin  he  loves.  So  it  is  that 
the  spiritual  nature  operates  its  changes  outward  and 
downward ;  that  the  Adam  of  consciousness  holds 
us  like  clay  in  his  hands,  and  makes  our  members 
the  moulds  of  his  dehumanizing  lusts,  while  the 
Christ  of  consciousness  changes  us  back  into  the 
figure  of  divine  affections.  The  "  old  man  with  his 
lusts  "  therefore  is  put  off,  even  to  his  literal  embody- 
ment,  as  the  new  man  is  formed  beneath  and  claims 
to  fill  and  shape  our  most  outward  being,  when  we 
seem  changed,  and, 

"  As  a  troop  of  maskers  when  they  put 
Their  visors  off,  look  other  than  before." 

Even  Nature  herself  becomes  changed,  for  how  va- 
ried does  she  appear  to  us,  according  to  the  eyes 
through  which  we  look,  and  whether  we  see  her 
work  as  a  hard  material  fact,  or  the  picture-language 
that  shadows  forth  immortal  things.  The  natural  man 
sees  this  world  only  from  the  natural  side.  No  light 
from  the  other  side  shows  him  the  meaning  in  hum- 
ble affairs,  and  the  redolence  that  breathes  out  of" 
them,  and  the  divine  airs  enfolding  every  object.  It 
is  the  difference  between  seeing  this  world  only  as  a 
material  structure,  contrived  for  man's  present  grati- 


REGENERATION.  131 

fication,  and  viewing  it  as  the  scene  of  his  training 
for  the  skies ;  as  exhibiting  an  exterior  and  perish- 
ing beauty,  and  as  penetrated  by  an  intelligence 
everywhere  infused,  that  copies  out  the  Everlasting 
Mind  and  opens  everywhere  a  holy  bible  to  human 
ken.  Jonathan  Edwards  has  alluded  to  this  change 
in  describing  his  religious  experience :  "  My  sense 
of  divine  things  gradually  increased,  and  became 
more  and  more  lively,  and  had  more  of  inward  sweet- 
ness. The  appearance  of  every  thing  was  altered ; 
there  seemed  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  calm  sweet  cast  or 
appearance  of  divine  glory  in  almost  every  thing. 
God's  excellency,  his  wisdom,  his  purity  and  love, 
seemed  to  appear  in  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  in  the 
clouds  and  blue  sky  ;  in  the  grass,  flowers,  and  trees  • 
in  the  water  and  all  nature."  And  one  of  yet  clearer 
prophetic  insight  than  that  of  Edwards  describes  the 
same  thing  as  a  sense  sublime 

"  Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  breathing  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man,  — 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

Last  of  all,  the  regenerate  state  is  characterized  by 
a  new  morality.  Works  are  filled  and  vitalized  by 
that  angelic  benevolence  which  is  not  complete  until 
clothed  and  ultimated  in  action.  The  works  of  the 
natural  man  are  done  for  wages.  The  fear  of  hell 
scares  him  from  wrong-doing,  or  the  hope  of  heaven 


132  THE    NEW    MAN. 

lures  him  to  work  in  the  master's  vineyard  and  bear 
the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day.  Hence  there  is  so 
much  of  sighing  and  fainting  under  the  weary  load 
of  present  duty,  among  those  who  look  away  to  some 
future  heaven  where  there  will  be  nothing  to  do 
but  play  on  golden  harps  and  sing  pleasant  songs. 
Hence  the  religious  life  and  the  practical,  here  on 
this  earth,  have  been  so  riven  asunder,  religion  re- 
treating away  into  conference-rooms  and  prayer- 
meetings,  and  cathedrals  on  whose  mystic  silence  no 
murmur  breaks  from  without,  while  the  field,  the 
workshop,  the  mart,  and  the  hustings  are  bereft  of 
her  presence  and  left  dreary  and  profane.  Even 
when  their  work  is  done  from  a  religious  sense  of 
duty,  it  is  not  always  true  that  religion  is  in  the  work. 
Perchance  it  only  commands  the  work  to  be  done. 
Not  so  when  the  regenerate  life  clothes  itself  in  new 
moralities.  Then  works  are  to  the  soul  what  utter- 
ance is  to  genius,  whose  necessity  is,  I  must  speak 
or  else  I  die ;  and  whose  glorious  conceptions  lie  on 
the  soul  like  a  burden,  and  flood  it  with  a  beauty 
which  it  cannot  bear,  until  those  conceptions  are 
born  into  the  actual  world,  and  embodied  in  the  can- 
vas, the  marble,  and  the  epic  song.  Then  genius 
•sees  its  heaven  coming  down  to  earth,  and  taking 
form  in  outward  things,  and  it  stands  face  to  face 
with  its  own  lovely  creations.  So  it  is  with  the 
man  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus  and  inspired  with 
heavenly  sentiments.  His  appropriate  works  are 
where  these  sentiments  are  embodied  in  loveliest 
forms,  and  his  daily  duties  become  the  poesy  of  life, 


REGENERATION. 

always  inspired  from  above,  always  fragrant  with  the 
breath  of  praise.  Ideas  of  goodness,  beneficence, 
justice,  and  truth,  always  rolling  in  upon  the  soul 
when  filled  and  warmed  with  the  supremely  good 
and  fair,  always  seeking  on  earth  their  imbodiment 
and  resting-place,  leave  us  no  peace  unless  we  will 
give  them  shape  in  outward  things,  and  carve  the 
substance  of  this  world  into  their  own  bright  and 
heavenly  image.  And  then  we  are  blest,  supremely 
blest,  for  our  daily  prayer  has  its  daily  fulfilment, 
that  God's  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  also  on 
the  earth.  We  greatly  mistake  the  essential  wants 
of  humanity,  if  we  suppose  that  the  same  relation 
between  our  inmost  life  and  our  outermost  practice 
will  not  subsist  after  we  have  done  with  time.  And 
perchance,  because  in  the  spiritual  world  forms  and 
substances  are  more  yielding  and  passive  to  the  plas- 
tic spirit  within,  the  moralities  of  heaven  shall  be 
more  redolent  of  its  life,  and  its  forms  be  sculptured 
into  more  perfect  moulds  of  the  everlasting  Truth 
and  Beauty.  What  higher  bliss  can  we  sigh  for, 
than  that  our  feet  may  move  on  this  swift  obe- 
dience through  the  unending  ages,  bringing  the 
loftiest  ideals  into  the  lowest  actualities,  and  mak- 
ing the  harmonies  between  these  two  our  working 
song? 

There  is  one  qualification  which  we  ought  to 
make.  We  have  described  the  regenerate  man  as 
one  in  whom  instinct  and  impulse  are  a  safe  and  un- 
erring guide,  since  the  heart  can  crave  nothing  that  is 
wrong.  We  ought,  however,  to  allow,  that  until  not 
12 


134  THE    NEW    MAN. 

only  the  individual  is  changed,  but  until  the  world 
around  him  is  changed  also,  the  best  man  will  here 
find  sometimes  a  conflict  between  his  feelings  and 
duties.  In  the  punishment  of  crime,  in  the  great 
battle  with  wrongj  we  may  be  called  to  sacrifice  and 
suffering,  and  the  performance  of  what  are  called 
painful  duties.  But  even  so  the  regenerate  man  is 
sustained  and  cheered,  and  triumphs  over  pain ;  and 
as  fast  as  the  world  around  him  is  changed  and 
renovated,  these  painful  duties  diminish.  They  will 
cease  entirely,  when  not  only  the  breast  of  the  indi- 
vidual, but  the  world  that  lies  about  him,  shall  be- 
come truly  the  mirror  of  the  skies. 

The  sum  of  our  doctrine,  then,  on  this  vitally  im- 
portant subject  is  this. 

Regeneration,  in  its  internal  nature  and  process, 
includes  three  things :  — 

First,  the  receiving  the  divine  life  into  our  inmost 
being  through  those  capacities  that  open  inward  to- 
wards God  and  the  spirit-world,  —  the  divine  life  im- 
parted by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  ever  breathes  through 
the  heart  of  humanity. 

Secondly,  moved  by  this  divine  and  attractive 
force,  our  natural  powers,  intellectual,  affectional, 
and  active,  incline  towards  God,  and  are  drawn  into 
his  service. 

Thirdly,  all  corrupt  instincts,  whether  we  acquired 
them  ourselves  or  received  them  as  the  foul  inherit- 
ance of  the  past,  constituting  the  Adam  of  con- 
sciousness, are  expelled.  This  is  the  old  man  which 
is  put  off  as  the  new  man  is  unfolded  from  within. 


REGENERATION.  135 

The  new  man  is  known  and  characterized,  — 

By  the  new  motives  which  are  the  springs  of  con- 
duct. Hope  of  reward  and  fear  of  punishment  both 
give  place  to  an  ever-abounding  love.  In  other 
words,  we  act  not  from  motives  drawn  from  the  fu- 
ture, but  from  the  glad  promptings  of  the  present 
hour.  Hence,  again,  — 

By  a  new  kind  of  worship ;  for  we  do  not  seek 
God  to  purchase  his  future  favor,  or  to  deprecate  his 
wrath,  but  because  he  is  our  present  life  and  joy,  and 
our  powers  lift  the  spontaneous  hymn  to  his  praise. 

By  a  new  enjoyment  of  external  things,  since  the 
light  and  peace  within  us  invest  the  world  without 
us  with  their  sun-bright  hues,  and  since  even  the 
body  which  we  wear  is  pliant  to  the  new  power 
that  shapes  the  internal  man,  and  makes  the  ex- 
ternal reflect  its  radiance. 

By  the  new  morality  in  which  the  new  life  seeks 
expression  and  embodiment,  when  the  soul  puts  on 
righteousness,  and  it  clothes  her,  and  makes  justice 
her  robe  and  diadem. 

The  means  by  which  this  great  change  is  effected 
are  as  various  as  the  culture  and  discipline  of  life. 
In  the  following  chapters  we  shall  attempt  to  group 
together  those  which  seem  of  the  most  importance, 
and  which  often  lie  nearest  at  hand  when  we  seek 
them  not. 


CHAPTER   II. 

CHOICE. 


"  How  precious  a  thing  is  youthful  energy  !  if  only  it  could  be  preserved,  entirely 
englobed  as  it  were  within  the  bosom  of  the  young  adventurer,  till  he  can  come 
forth  and  offer  it  a  sacred  emanation  hi  yonder  temple  of  truth  and  virtue !  But 
alas !  all  along,  as  he  goes  towards  it,  he  advances  through  an  avenue  formed  by  a 
long  line  of  tempters  and  demons  on  each  side,  all  prompt  to  touch  him  with  their 
conductors  and  draw  the  divine  electric  current  with  which  he  is  charged  away."  — 
JOHN  FOSTER. 


No  diligent  and  candid  reader  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures can  fail  to  have  discovered  that  the  spirit-world 
is  described  by  them  under  two  classes  of  images. 
They  open  above  us  a  region  of  infinite  purity  and 
love,  where  all  that  is  good  and  happy  is  parted  off  by 
itself,  and  hangs  above  us  like  a  firmament  of  grand- 
eur and  beauty.  They  open  beneath  us  a  .region 
where  sin  in  its  hideous  shape  sinks  away  to  its  own 
level,  and  seeks  the  hiding-places  of  a  starless  night. 
These  two  states  are  set  over  one  against  the  other. 
It  is  the  parallelism  that  runs  through  the  whole 
Bible,  and  you  scarcely  open  a  page  where  you  do 
not  trace  its  lines  distinctly  and  sharply  drawn. 
No  middle  region  is  described  in  the  land  of  souls. 
And  this  world  of  sense  and  matter  is  spoken  of  as 
hanging  midway  between  those  two  great  kingdoms 


CHOICE.  137 

of  Light  and  of  Shadow.  The  world  we  now  live  in, 
mixed  up  as  it  is  of  good  and  evil,  is  constantly 
yielding  back  its  primal  elements,  decomposing  and 
parting  off,  on  the  one  hand,  the  worthless  dross, 
and,  on  the  other,  the  clear  and  imperishable  gold. 
Good  and  evil  dissolve  and  part  off  by  themselves, 
the  good  rising  by  its  own  affinities  and  seeking 
its  kindred  heaven,  thus  pouring  ever  fresh  streams 
of  life  and  blessedness  into  its  abodes.  The  bad 
parts  away,  and  is  drawn  to  its  like  in  the  abysses, 
because  there  too  is  its  kindred  and  its  home. 

This  doctrine  we  find  drawn  out  in  the  parable  of 
the  tares  and  the  wheat,  growing  together  until  the 
harvest,  when  the  former  are  gathered  into  bundles 
and  piled  up  for  burning,  and  the  latter  is  stored  away 
in  its  garners.  We  find  it  touched  off  with  a  most 
graphic  pencil  in  the  parable  of  the  sheep  and  the 
goats,  where  the  Son  of  man  sits  among  the  assembled 
nations,  and,  as  the  solemn  drama  passes  along,  they 
part  asunder  under  the  opposite  sentences,  Come,  ye 
blessed  !  and  Depart,  ye  cursed !  We  find  it,  again, 
in  th*e  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  symbol- 
ized in  the  great  gulf  that  lies  between  the  realm 
of  Light  and  Bliss,  and  the  realm  of  Shadow  and 
Pain.  And  again  we  find  it  in  the  Apocalypse, 
where  the  new  heaven  shines  above,  beautiful  as  a 
bride,  and  the  lake  of  fire  lies  beneath,  with  all  un- 
clean things  that  float  on  its  noxious  waves.  And 
yet  again  we  find  it  in  our  Saviour's  description  of  a 
twofold  resurrection ;  of  those  who  have  done  good 
coming  out  of  their  graves  to  higher  life  and  frui- 


138  THE    NEW    MAN. 

tion,  and  of  those  that  have  done  evil  to  a  resurrec- 
tion of  condemnation  and  shame. 

Now  it  is  somewhat  surprising,  at  first  thought, 
that,  while  the  Scriptures  abound  in  all  this  moral 
painting,  it  should  have  no  greater  power  over  the 
consciences  and  lives  of  men ;  that,  while  these  pic- 
tures are  hung  down  out  of  the  spirit-world  into  this, 
they  have  failed  so  much  in  arresting  the  gaze  of 
mortals.  We  read  over  some  tragedy  that  paints 
the  happiness  or  the  sufferings  of  human  beings,  and 
we  thrill  and  weep  at  the  winding  up  of  its  scenes. 
We  take  up  some  story  of  human  fortunes  abound- 
ing in  human  loves  and  interests,  and  we  hang 
breathless  over  its  catastrophes.  Why  is  it,  then,  that 
the  solemn  drama  of  humanity,  and  the  winding  up 
of  its  fortunes,  do  not  take  hold  of  our  deepest  sym- 
pathies ? 

We  apprehend  the  reason  to  be,  that  to  many,  per- 
haps to  most  minds,  there  is,  after  all,  an  appearance 
of  unreality  in  these  descriptions ;  that  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  any  basis  in  known  facts,  or  to  paint 
human  character  as  we  know  it  and  see  it.  Perhaps 
an  objection  may  lie  in  the  mind  of  the  reader 
somewhat  after  this  wise. 

We  do  not  see  any  such  division  of  human  charac- 
ter as  answers  to  these  pictures  and  images.  Men  are 
not  all  good,  nor  all  bad,  but  between  the  best  man 
and  the  worst  there  is  every  shade  of  character,  where 
the  colors  run  into  each  other.  Take  the  highest 
grade  of  excellence  that  was  ever  attained  to,  take 
the  lowest  point  of  depravity  to  which  humanity  has 


CHOICE.  139 

ever  fallen,  and  where  on  this  descending  scale  will 
you  put  your  finger  and  make  a  dividing  mark,  and 
say  that  all  above  are  bound  to  one  destiny  and 
all  below  to  another?  The  man  just  above  it  dif- 
fers only  in  the  slightest  shade  from  the  man  just 
below  it.  Good  and  evil  are  mixed  up  in  every 
man's  soul.  They  change  and  interpenetrate  in  all 
imaginable  shapes  and  colorings.  This  division  line, 
therefore,  is  merely  arbitrary,  and  so  a  just  and  holy 
being  can  never  make  it. 

Now  we  hold  and  acknowledge  that  the  facts  of 
this  life  present  a  perfectly  fair  and  valid  ground  from 
which  to  argue  the  facts  of  the  life  to  come.  Away, 
we  say,  with  all  theologies  which  sunder  themselves 
from  human  nature.  Man,  as  an  immortal  being,  has 
only  one  continuous  and  endless  life.  It  is  not  a 
life  to  be  chopped  into  fragments  which  have  no 
relation  to  each  other.  The  future  is  an  unfailing 
result  of  the  present.  The  spirit-world  is  human 
nature  more  fully  revealed  and  its  powers  more  per- 
fectly dramatized,  and  unless  the  ground  of  this  pic- 
ture-language of  the  Bible  exist  now  and  here  in 
these  throbbing  bosoms,  it  exists  never  and  no- 
where. 

But  let  us  be  cautious,  and  not  reason  from  ap- 
pearances only.  And  we  go  on  to  show  that  the 
objection,  which  we  have  endeavored  to  draw  out 
in  its  full  strength,  is  specious  and  delusive.  It  is 
founded,  we  think,  on  shallow  views  of  human 
nature,  not  on  a  perception  of  its  more  deep  and  in- 
tense realities. 


140  THE    NEW    MAN. 

For ,  consider  the  matte?.  Is  it  not  true  that 
every  man  who  comes  to  years  of  moral  choice 
and  responsibility  has  some  purpose  that  governs 
him  and  gives  unity  to  his  life?  Analyze  your  mo- 
tives and  you  will  find  it  so.  Every  heart  has  its 
ruling  passion,  every  life  has  its  ruling  principle.  It 
is  true  that,  under  the  urbanities  and  simulations  of 
life,  this  does  not  always  appear.  But  could  you  lay 
off  from  any  one's  heart  all  its  envelopments  till  you 
came  to  the  real  man,  you  would  find  some  princi- 
ple to  which  all  others  held  a  secondary  and  subor- 
dinate place.  From  the  very  constitution  of  human 
nature  it  cannot  be  otherwise.  Human  nature 
opens  outward  towards  sense  and  inward  towards 
God.  The  forces  of  hereditary  corruption  assail  it 
from  behind,  and  would  draw  it  into  the  bondage  of 
self  and  the  world,  while  divine  forces  act  upon  it 
from  within  and  above,  and  would  draw  it  into  the 
service  of  God  and  humanity.  We  must  choose  be- 
tween these  two.  On  every  human  being  devolves 
the  fearful  responsibility  of  being  arbiter  between 
them,  and  deciding  which  of  these  forces  shall  pre- 
vail. There,  on  his  right  hand,  comes  down  the 
angel  of  truth,  unrolling  before  him  the  Divine  com- 
mandments, and  pointing  with  directing  finger  to 
the  bright  and  climbing  pathway.  There,  on  his 
left  hand,  stands  at  the  same  time  the  fiend  of  self, 
with  his  glozing  seductions  and  lies.  Is  there  any 
man  to  whom  the  angel  of  God's  presence  hath  not 
come  bringing  the  Everlasting  Law,  whether  in  the 
revelations  of  Christianity  or  in  those  veiled  interior 


CHOICE.  141 

ministries  which  wait  on  the  human  soul  under  every 
form  of  religion  and  worship  ?  And  is  there  any 
one  whom  the  tempter  hath  not  approached  on  the 
side  of  the  selfish  nature,  that  he  might  warm  into 
life  all  the  germs  of  hereditary  evil,  and  make  that 
the  dominant  power  of  the  soul  ?  And  doth  it  not 
appear,  then,  even  as  the  Scriptures  have  put  the  al- 
ternative, that  no  man  can  serve  two  masters,  since, 
while  he  follows  and  loves  the  one,  he  rejects  and 
denies  the  other  ?  He  chooses  between  them.  And 
they  are  opposites.  They  have  nothing  in  common. 
One  begets  in  us  the  faith  and  the  affections,  the 
graces  and  virtues,  which  belong  to  the  regions  of 
light ;  the  other,  those  delusions  and  passions  and 
corroding  memories  that  people  the  realm  of  shades. 
But  perhaps  the  reader  will  object,  and  say,  "  You 
do  not  yet  meet  the  case.  What  if  every  man  has 
his  ruling  principle,  a  principle  chosen,  if  you  will, 
from  the  code  of  heaven  or  of  hell  ?  The  best  man 
does  not  live  up  to  his  own  ideal,  and  is  not  all  a 
saint  He  has  his  faults  and  his  short-comings.  So 
the  worst  man  is  not  all  self.  He  has  his  virtues 
and  his  better  feelings,  and  his  character  is  not  all 
dark  and  ugly."  This  is  all  true.  But  then  it  is 
also  true,  that  the  wrong  principle,  once  chosen  and 
followed  and  made  vital,  becomes  central  and  con- 
trolling, and  the  virtues  and  graces  are  driven,  out 
towards  the  surface  of  the  man.  Such  a  man  will 
do  many  good  things,  when  they  are  not  inconsist- 
ent with  his  main  object  and  aim.  He  may  even 
make  the  virtues  his  auxiliaries,  and  they  shall  sub- 


142  THE  NEW  MAN; 

serve  his  purposes.  But  when  the  selfish  nature  and 
the  Eternal  Law  come  fairly  and  directly  in  con- 
flict, one  must  yield,  and  in  this  case  it  is  uniformly 
the  latter,  while  the  other  becomes  ascendant.  And 
so  the  wrong  principle  encroaches  upon  all  his  pow- 
ers, and  has  dominion  over  his  whole  nature.  His 
character  does  not  yet  lie  in  total  eclipse.  But  the 
line  which  separates  the  light  and  shade  is  moving 
the  wrong  way  ;  and  how  long  will  it  be,  unless  he 
changes  and  makes  a  new  choice  and  so  reverses 
the  process,  before  that  which  should  have  been  the 
guide  of  his  life  hangs  darkling  in  the  sky  ?  The 
dominant  principle,  the  ruling  love,  shape  the  charac- 
ter more  and  more  into  their  own  resemblance  and 
effigy,  till  even  the  virtues  and  graces  are  only  hollow 
expediencies  and  imitations,  —  outside  decorations, 
like  flowers  that  blossom  upon  graves. 

And  so,  on  the  other  hand,  though  every  good 
man  falls  short  of  his  standard,  yet  if  he  follows  it 
in  good  faith,  it  leads  him  higher  and  higher.  The 
selfish  nature  is  denied,  till  finally  it  ceases  to  be. 
Selfish  principles  and  passions  hold  a  subordinate 
place.  They  are  driven  from  the  centre  to  the  sur- 
face. The  line  of  shade  recedes,  till  the  light  of  his 
life  emerges  clear  and  full  in  the  heavens.  Whoever, 
in  short,  chooses  the  right,  and  is  ruled  by  it,  grows 
better  and  better.  Whoever  chooses  the  wrong,  and 
is  ruled  by  that,  grows  worse  and  worse.  Is  not  this 
human  nature  ?  It  is  true  that  this  process  working 
within  us  in  the  very  core  of  our  being  does  not  al- 
ways appear  at  once  upon  the  surface.  But  the 


CHOICE.  1 43 

man  whose  principle  of  life  is  wrong  has  his  internal 
character  constantly  transforming  into  the  false  and 
the  evil.  And  this  may  go  on  awhile  under  a  fair 
exterior,  under  the  show  of  morality,  under  the  show 
of  worship  itself.  But  all  these  externals  are  to  fall 
away.  We  rise  into  the  spirit-world  with  no  dis- 
guises about  us,  where  the  inner  life  is  brought 
forth  in  open  and  substantial  manifestation. 

To  our  apprehension,  therefore,  this  moral  paint- 
ing of  the  Bible,  which  parts  men  off  into  opposite 
groups  and  companies,  becomes  most  intensely  real. 
The  deep-working  principles  of  human  nature  are 
propBltic  of  this  grand  consummation,  and  make 
these  results  inevitable.  We  may  choose  which 
class  of  forces  shall  sway  us.  But  having  chosen, 
our  souls  are  moved  on  by  impulsions  which  we 
cannot  reverse  or  divert  from  their  crisis.  If  no 
Bible  had  opened  to  us  a  revelation  of  things  to  be, 
human  nature  were  itself  a  Bible  whose  open  pages 
would  disclose  this  final  catastrophe. 

We  ought,  however,  to  concede  so  far  to  the 
objection  which  we  have  in  hand,  as  to  allow  that 
self-love  takes  various  forms,  from  the  most  malig- 
nant to  the  most  mild,  and  that  the  great  principle 
which,  with  unerring  precision,  cleaves  asunder  the 
good  and  the  evil,  does  not  separate  the  one  into  the 
same  state  of  fruition,  nor  part  off  the  other  into  one 
mass  of  woe.  Neither  heaven  nor  hell  is  one,  but 
multiform,  and  the  law  of  a  just  retribution  will  be 
applied  to  us,  when  we  shall  reap  down  the  harvest 
which  we  sow.  What  we  argue  is,  that  God  and 


144  THE    NEW    MAN. 

self,  good  and  evil,  heaven  and  hell,  are  opposite  in 
nature  and  principle,  and  by  no  skill  of  the  pencil 
can  one  be  made  to  shade  off  into  the  other.  By  no 
contrivance,  divine  or  human,  can  they  be  made 
to  dwell  together  in  peace,  but  they  tend  to  separa- 
tion by  their  own  elective  affinities,  and  their  strug- 
gles towards  that  separation  occasion  the  perturba- 
tions of  this  our  state  of  mingled  good  and  evil. 
The  good  angel  stands  on  one  side,  and  the  evil  ge- 
nius on  the  other.  We  hear  the  first  in  a  thousand 
pleadings  and  calls  to  duty.  We  hear  the  other  in 
the  seductions  of  self-interest  and  self-indulgence. 
We  follow  one  or  the  other,  and  so  our  most*fhter- 
nal  character  is  changing  from  glory  to  glory,  or  from 
shade  to  deeper  shade.  This  power  of  choice,  then, 
is  an  awful  power.  The  child,  as  soon  as  he  can 
understand  the  words  Right  and  Wrong,  stands  be- 
tween the  world  of  Light  and  the  world  of  Shadows. 
He  comes  into  society.  Two  rules  of  action  are 
placed  before  him,  that  of  the  Gospel  and  that  of  the 
world.  He  chooses  between  them.  He  makes  one 
supreme  and  subordinates  the  other,  for  there  is  no 
middle  ground.  If  he  chooses  the  first,  the  good 
angel  ever  beckons  him  on  in  a  path  that  finally 
opens  upward  into  fields  of  everlasting  fruition.  If 
he  chooses  the  other,  the  path  leads  downward, — 
how  easy  at  first  to  tread !  but  it  grows  darker  and 
more  rugged,  till  his  feet  stumble  on  the  dark  moun- 
tains, and  he  falls  benighted  into  the  abyss  below. 

The  test  here  presented,  we  say,  is  philosophi- 
cal, and  stands  clear  of  the  cabbalistic  theologies. 


CHOICE.  145 

There  is  no  long  and  crabbed  creed  to  be  learned, 
no  mystic  experience  to  be  had  through  charms  and 
conjurations,  no  faith  in  mere  dogmas  to  be  "  im- 
puted for  righteousness."  Turn  where  you  will, 
reader,  there  are  two  principles  of  conduct  written 
out  and  blazing  upon  you,  one  of  self  and  one  of 
Christ.  On  the  one  hand  is  the  Gospel,  and  on  the 
other  are  the  world's  hollow  maxims  and  shifting 
expediencies.  As  soon  as  you  rise  in  the  morning, 
the  right  and  the  wrong  present  their  alternatives  in 
every  deed  you  do.  No  subtile  system  of  ethics 
needs  unfolding.  There  is  the  path  on  the  right, 
and  there  on  the  left.  Under  one  of  two  ruling 
motives,  every  deed  ranges  itself  at  once.  And 
though  the  divergence  between  these  two  paths 
may  seem  at  first  slight  and  unimportant,  yet  that 
is  the  starting-point  of  all  the  differences  that  follow 
after.  They  have  been  compared  to  two  lines  start- 
ing from  the  same  point.  However  small  the  angle 
they  make,  they  diverge  wider  and  wider  the  farther 
they  extend.  And  if  infinitely  extended,  they  di- 
verge to  an  infinite  distance.  So  between  two  per- 
sons choosing,  one  a  right  rule  of  life,  and  the 
other  the  wrong.  Their  characters  at  first  may  not 
seem  so  very  different,  but  the  fatal  angle  is  there ! 

So  much  depends  on  this  fearful  power  of  choice, 
the  first  power  to  be  exercised  when  our  regenera- 
tion begins.  On  these  silent  volitions  of  the  breast 
hang  such  amazing  and  eternal  fortunes.  No  won- 
der, then,  that  such  powers  wait  upon  us,  to  bend 
our  will  upward  or  deflect  it  downward.  And  no 
13 


146  THE    NEW    MAN. 

wonder  that,  to  impress  upon  us  the  importance  and 
consequences  of  moral  choice,  God  has  hung  down 
to  us  out  of  eternity  the  roll  of  destiny,  painting  on 
one  of  its  folds  the  upper  world,  with  its  hills  and 
vales  reposing  in  the  soft  beams  of  peace,  and  on 
the  other,  that  world  over  which  roll  the  clouds  of 
an  unavailing  sorrow,  —  yet  clouds  which  conceal 
far  more  than  they  disclose  ! 

An  Eastern  monarch,  on  the  eve  of  battle,  stood 
surveying  the  countless  battalia  that  swarmed  in 
the  plain  beneath  him,  till  he  burst  into  a  flood  of 
tears.  "  Why  do  you  weep,"  said  his  courtiers,  "  for 
the  victory  will  soon  be  ours."  "  I  weep,"  said  he, 
"  to  think  that  in  one  hundred  years  not  one  of  these 
hostile  myriads  will  be  alive."  But  the  Christian 
imagination  forms  to  itself  a  conception  more  au- 
gust and  solemn.  The  myriads  that  swarm  over 
the  earth's  surface  !  To-day  alive  and  busy ;  to- 
morrow brushes  them  from  the  scene.  And  amidst 
infinite  varieties  of  taste,  affection,  and  motive, 
two  master  motives  are  severally  supreme.  Every 
heart  has  been  touched  and  polarized  by  one  of 
two  opposite  magnets  :  death  comes  to  remove  out- 
ward and  artificial  restraints,  and  lo !  this  mass  of 
humanity  separates  and  sweeps  towards  its  opposite 
poles. 

If,  when  these  momentous  alternatives  were  first 
presented,  —  for  they  are  presented  to  every  human 
being,  —  if,  when  first  he  heard  the  pleadings  of  the 
angel  in  his  breast,  or  the  sorceries  of  the  tempting 
fiend,  this  power  of  choice  were  exercised  with  de- 


CHOICE.  147 

cision  on  the  side  of  right,  and  the  life  of  regener- 
ation chosen  with  alacrity  and  energy,  all  else  would 
follow  in  its  time  and  order.  This  vow  once  made, 
and  this  great  work  of  self-consecration  once  com- 
menced in  good  faith,  we  have  the  promise  that 
more  agencies  than  we  can  take  notice  of  wait  upon 
us,  that  they  may  smooth  out  our  way  before  us. 
This  efficient  exercise  of  the  power  of  choice, — 
choice  between  the  motive-powers  that  shall  rule 
us,  choice  between  the  two  worlds  that  draw  us 
contra-wise,  and  fling  over  us  the  alternations  of  sun 
and  shade,  —  is  the  first  step  in  the  Christian  life,  and 
that  step  firmly  taken,  the  victory  is  half  won.  For 
the  heavens  themselves  then  bend  around  us  to 
guard  us  on,  and  our  decision,  we  are  assured,  sends 
through  their  ranks  a  wavelet  of  joy. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  BOOKS   OPENED. 


"  I  presuppose  a  humble  and  docile  state  of  mind,  and  above  all  the  practice 
of  prayer  as  the  necessary  condition  of  such  a  state,  and  the  best,  if  not  the  only, 
means  of  becoming  sincere  to  our  own  hearts ;  —  those  inward  means  of  grace, 
without  which  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  in  the  most  faithful  translation,  and 
in  the  purest  and  plainest  English,  must  nevertheless  continue  to  be  a  dead  lan- 
guage, — a  sun-dial  by  moonlight."  —  COLERIDGE. 


IT  is  an  obvious  condition  of  man's  regenera- 
tion, that  he  know  himself.  He  must  see  the  evil 
that  is  in  him,  in  order  to  its  extrusion.  And 
yet  so  manifold  are  the  envelopments  that  infold 
him,  that  he  bears  about  unscanned  the  mysteries 
that  lie  within.  We  live  mainly  in  externals,  and 
hence  we  are  disguised  from  ourselves.  Hence 
our  imperfect  view  of  human  nature ;  hence  our 
shallow  culture, —  so  often  the  outside  gilding  that 
conceals  a  heart  uncleansed ;  hence  our  surface- 
moralities  ;  hence  our  ignorance  of  the  deepest 
springs  of  action  in  our  own  bosoms.  What  is  inly 
wrong,  in  order  to  be  apprehended  and  expelled, 
must  come  within  the  clear  range  of  our  inward 
vision.  How  shall  we  have  these  self-revealings  ? 
By  what  means  is  the  book  of  our  life  to  be  opened  ? 

There  is  a  way  which  is  simple  and  direct,  to  him 


THE   BOOKS   OPENED.  149 

who  earnestly  desires  to  see  himself  as  he  is.  It  is  by 
turning  the  soul  towards  God.  It  is  by  communing 
with  the  Eternal  Purity,  whose  spirit  ever  broods 
over  the  chaos  within  us,  and  seeks  to  separate  its 
elements  into  determinate  form  and  order.  Before 
the  Divine  nature,  all  that  is  wrong  in  our  own 
is  revealed  by  contrast,  and  appears  black  in  the 
light.  The  Eternal  Law  shines  down  through  our 
being,  and  shows  our  desires  and  aims,  in  opposi- 
tion to  its  own  sanctity.  It  is  the  hatefulness  of 
the  selfish  will  in  the  presence  of  the  All-Pure. 
Doubtless,  the  revelation  is  at  first  humiliating  and 
painful.  In  that  hour  of  self-conviction,  the  burden 
of  our  most  inherent  corruption  hangs  heavy  on  our 
souls.  Two  ideas,  for  the  time,  take  sole  possession 
of  our  minds,  and  fill  the  whole  scope  of  our  vision. 
Our  inmost  self  how  alienated!  The  Divine  na- 
ture how  dazzling  and  dreadful  in  its  holiness  ' 
The  contrast  between  these  two  makes  us  veil  our 
faces  in  tears,  and  exclaim,  "  I  shall  die,  for  I  have 
seen  the  Lord!"  We  cannot  bear  that  "  noon  of  liv- 
ing rays,"  when  searched  and  laid  open  beneath  it. 
He  who  thought  himself  rich  and  in  need  of  nothing, 
now  finds  himself  poor  and  in  need  of  every  thing. 
He  who  before  was  complacent  and  satisfied  with 
the  shows  of  a  seeming  morality,  is  startled  and 
dismayed,  as  a  light  from  out  of  himself  is  let  down 
through  the  central  places  of  his  being,  and  reveals 
the  secret  corruption  that  lurks  through  all  its  wind- 
ing recesses.  How  false  has  been  his  standard  of 
right,  how  low  have  been  his  aims,  and  what  impu- 

13* 


150  THE    NEW    MAN. 

rities  have  tainted  the  springs  of  his  conduct !  "  I 
thought  myself  alive  without  the  law,"  said  the 
great  Apostle,  "  but  when  the  commandment  came, 
sin  revived,  and  I  died."  When  the  Eternal  Law 
shone  forth,  the  sin  that  was  in  me  came  full 
into  the  range  of  rny  consciousness,  and  instead 
of  spiritual  life,  I  found  there  a  mass  of  death. 
Thus  God,  by  his  immanence  in  man,  reveals,  when 
invoked  and  welcomed,  the  afflicting  contrast  be- 
tween human  corruption  and  the  Everlasting  Purity. 
What  we  have  now  described,  is  sometimes  called 
"  conviction  of  sin."  But  it  is  more  than  that.  Sin 
pertains  only  to  what  is  wrong  in  our  volitions  and 
actions.  But  now  the  sources  of  sin,  lying  deeper 
than  all  volition  and  action,  are  shown  to  us  ;  for 
the  vain  disguises  of  our  self-love  having  withered 
away  under  the  beams  of  the  Divine  countenance, 
the  diseased  mass  whose  hidden  motions  had  swayed 
our  volitions  and  conduct  is  disclosed,  and  makes 
us  cry,  "  Who  shall  deliver  us  from  this  body  of 
death  ?  "  The  Apostle,  as  above  quoted,  is  not  using 
the  words  sin  and  death  as  the  synonyma  of  moral 
guilt,  but  rather  of  moral  disease,  from  which  guilty 
conduct  flows  as  from  a  turbid  spring.  How  often 
had  our  endeavors  after  holiness  been  defeated  and 
baffled!  how  had  the  means,  of  grace  been  repeated 
till  they  had  become  state  formalities  !  how  had  our 
vague  dissatisfactions  and  our  daily  unrest  pre- 
vented the  peace  of  God  and  our  sweet  repose 
on  the  bosom  of  his  love!  The  source  of  all  our 
trouble  has  now  been  shown  to  us,  as  a  new  page 
in  the  book  of  our  life  has  opened  to  our  sight. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  BOOKS  OPENED. 

"  O,  what  a  sight  were  man,  if  his  attires 

Did  alter  with  his  mind, 

And,  like  a  dolphin's  skin,  his  clothes  combined 
With  his  desires ! 

"  Surely,  if  each  one  saw  another's  heart, 

There  would  be  no  commerce, 
No  sale  or  bargain  pass  :  all  would  disperse 
And  lire  apart ! 

"  Lord,  mend,  or  rather  make  us  ;  one  creation 

Will  not  suffice  our  turn  : 
Except  thou  make  us  daily,  we  shall  spurn 

Our  own  salvation."  —  GEORGE  HERBERT. 

THERE  is  a  legend  of  one  of  the  ancient  kings  of 
England,  that,  returning  from  the  Crusades,  he  was 
taken  captive  by  his  enemies,  and  confined  in  a  Ger- 
man fortress.  Languishing  there  in  the  darkness 
of  his  solitary  cell,  he  was  lost  to  his  people  and 
dead  to  the  world,  and  fast  perishing  from  the  mem- 
ory of  mankind.  But  there  was  a  minstrel  of  his 
court  by  the  name  of  Blondel,  who  sought  to  find 
him.  He  wandered  in  disguise  through  Europe,  and 
played  and  sung  under  the  windows  of  every  prison, 
the  airs  which  he  and  his  master  had  sung  together 
in  days  of  old.  At  the  last  trial,  after  the  first  strain 


152  THE    NEW   MAN. 

had  died  away,  the  second  strain  awoke  from  with- 
in the  fortress,  and  rolled  responsive  from  the  prison 
cells.  The  lost  monarch  was  found. 

Precisely  such  is  the  office  which  temptation  per- 
forms for  us.  It  reveals  us.  We  mean  by  temp- 
tation, such  surroundings  as  make  us  conscious  of 
wrong  desires,  and  draw  us  vehemently  towards  for- 
bidden objects.  Any  one  seeking  in  good  faith  to 
know  himself,  may  find  all  the  shadings  of  his  inmost 
being  reflected  back  upon  him,  from  the  objects  that 
lie  along  his  path.  For  temptation  puts  nothing 
new  into  us.  It  only  brings  out  before  the  sun 
something  which  existed  there  already.  We  are 
enticed  by  the  lusts  that  are  within,  and  it  is  the 
lust  which  gives  to  the  object  without  all  its  mere- 
tricious and  seducing  charms.  The  corruption  with- 
in corresponds  to  the  object  without,  and  they  call 
and  answer  to  each  other.  If  there  were  no  lurk- 
ing evil  in  our  nature,  there  could  be  no  tempta- 
tions. They  are  the  Blondels,  whose  songs  and 
harpings  are  of  the  same  air  and  dialect  of  some 
corruption  within  ;  and  so  they  respond  to  each 
other,  strain  for  strain.  Hence  there  is  a  meaning 
in  the  discipline  of  life,  the  myriad-toned  language 
that  comes  to  us  from  without,  which  we  do  not 
always  seek  to  comprehend.  One  of  the  first  de- 
signs of  Providence  in  leading  us  through  the  paths 
of  our  probation  here,  is  to  show  us  to  ourselves. 
The  guilty  man  says,  in  extenuation  of  his  crime, 
"  If  I  had  not  been  sorely  tempted,  I  should  not 
have  fallen."  So  neither  would  you  have  known 


THE   BOOKS    OPENED.  153 

the  evil  that  is  in  you.  Providence  led  you  into 
the  midst  of  these  surroundings,  for  the  purpose, 
not  of  causing  you  to  sin,  but  of  showing  you  your 
propensities  to  sin,  as  if  he  had  said,  "  Behold,  I 
show  you  a  mystery ! "  How  often  has  a  man 
thought  himself  immaculate;  until  the  attractive 
power  of  some  object  out  of  him  caused  the  lurking 
corruption  to  leap  up  in  his  bosom.  So  it  is  with  all 
the  passions  that  lie  coiled  within.  Circumstances 
do  not  create  them  ;  they  only  evoke  them  from  their 
mystic  places  into  the  light  of  our  self-conscious- 
ness. One  person  brings  into  the  world  a  revenge- 
ful temper.  But  who  knew  it  while  the  infant  was 
smiling  in  the  cradle  ?  It  is  along  with  the  provoca- 
tives of  opposition,  that  it  discovers  its  full  strength 
and  malignity.  Another  inherits  a  selfish  love  for 
acquisition.  But  it  is  not  the  infant  brow  that  is 
pursed  with  calculation.  It  is  amid  competitions  and 
scrambles  for  gain,  it  is  among  lands  and  stocks 
and  treasures,  that  he  feels  the  gnawings  of  the  ac- 
cursed hunger  for  gold.  The  lust  for  place  and 
power  does  not  point  to  its  unscrupulous  arts,  and 
the  depths  of  its  cringing  baseness,  until  occasion 
and  circumstance  have  uncoiled  it,  and  we  see  its 
amazing  possibilities.  Thus  are  we  led  along  the 
paths  where  the  objects  of  our  selfish  love  stir  up 
the  passions  of  the  heart ;  and  then,  if  we  will  but 
watch  its  motions,  we  shall  find  those  passions  un- 
winding, one  after  another,  until  our  inward  life  has 
been  imaged  back  upon  us,  —  and  then  we  have 
seen  ourselves!  All  the  corruption  of  our  natures 


154  THE    NEW    MAN. 

asserts  its  existence.  We  may  deny  it,  we  may 
slay  it  now  if  we  will,  and  it  shall  never  pass  into 
our  voluntary  life.  But  in  all  its  shapes  it  shall 
thus  pass  before  the  eye  of  self-consciousness,  as 
clearly  as  the  forms  of  future  dynasties  passed  be- 
fore the  wizard-glass  of  Banquo. 

It  often  occurs,  that  those  who  have  never  had 
these  self-revealings  will  contemplate  their  own 
deeds  with  the  deepest  amazement.  Their  passions 
lay  still  within  them  like  caged  and  sleeping  lions, 
and  they  might  have  been  led  along  under  a  dispen- 
sation of  terror  that  overwhelmed  and  repressed 
their  free  moral  agency,  and  their  outward  lives 
would  have  been  perfectly  blameless.  But  rather 
than  human  nature  should  bear  onward  all  this 
hidden  defilement,  Providence  permits  these  secret 
forces  to  be  uncaged  and  set  free ;  and  so  they  who 
will  not  seek  a  knowledge  of  themselves  by  self- 
examination  and  prayer  are  suffered  to  obtain  it  at 
the  cost  of  bitter  repentance  and  blasting  remorse. 
"  Is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this  great 
thing  ? "  Who  is  Hazael,  the  blameless  Syrian, 
that  he  should  be  thought  capable  of  such  awful 
crimes  ?  And  the  prophet  answered,  "  The  Lord 
hath  shown  me  that  thou  shalt  be  king  over  Syria." 

Even  the  crimes  of  society,  the  collective  man, 
might  reflect  back  upon  the  individual  the  lurid 
colors  of  his  own  passions.  Whence  come  wars 
and  fightings  ?  They  are  the  ultimation  of  the  lusts 
of  every  man  who  loves  not  his  neighbor  as  himself. 
Our  selfish  instincts  are  cruel  as  the  grave.  Hatred, 


THE    BOOKS    OPENED.  155 

love  of  rule,  and  the  greed  for  gain,  first  rankle  in 
the  individual  breast;  they  poison  domestic  and 
social  relations,  they  demoralize  parties,  and  finally 
they  set  nation  against  nation,  and  then  they  are  in 
full  blaze,  giving  the  world  an  open  view  of  the  hell 
that  had  glared  beneath.  They  are  precisely  the  same 
lusts  which,  in  private  life,  make  man  unjust  or  un- 
kind to  his  brother,  —  only  now  they  have  obtained 
volume,  and  passed  into  combustion  by  union  and 
contact;  and  it  is  amid  "the  demon-cries  of  the  bat- 
tle-field, where  the  collective  man  is  in  action,  that 
a  permissive  Providence  confronts  an  unregenerate 
human  nature  with  its  own  ghastly  image. 

If  some  being  were  to  alight  upon  this  earth,  his 
spirit  susceptible  only  of  those  desires  that  glow  in 
the  seraph's  frame,  he  would  walk  through  all  its 
corruptions  with  no  thirst  for  its  sinful  pleasures. 
Yet  the  same  environments  that  evoke  from  the  un- 
regenerate heart  its  unhallowed  desires,  only  set  free 
the  angel's  affections  and  sympathies  when  that 
heart  is  purified  of  evil.  Opposition  calls  forth  from 
the  natural  man  wrong  for  wrong.  From  the 
breast  of  the  Divine  Man,  a  flood  of  heavenly  ten- 
derness was  set  free  by  the  hand  that  smote  it.  Our 
regeneration,  therefore,  is1  consummated,  not  when 
we  resist  temptation  merely,  but  when  temptation 
is  impossible,  and  no  Blondel's  harp  can  wake  an 
echo  to  its  strain. 

There  is  another  province  of  human  probation, 
similar  4o  the  one  just  described,  which  is  called 
trial.  It  is  trial  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 


156  THE    NEW   MAN. 

for  it  is  the  grand  assay  which  distinguishes  the 
worthless  dross  from  the  pure  gold.  The  first  effect 
of  suffering  and  affliction  is  to  test  man  and  to 
reveal  him.  It  were  easy  to  keep  him  in  the  way 
of  obedience,  by  the  pressure  of  outward  motives. 
He  puts  on  the  blandishments  and  urbanities  of 
the  world,  and  every  appetite  is  pampered,  while 
the  world  calls  him  good  and  generous.  He  puts 
on  the  shows  and  seemings  of  worship,  and  he 
easily  persuades  himself  that  its  sanctities  enter 
into  him  in  proportion  to  the  solemnity  and  splen- 
dor of  its  ceremonials.  Perhaps  the  deceiver  has 
no  art  so  cunning,  and  so  often  practised,  as  that 
which  imposes  upon  a  man  by  taking  from  him  the 
substance  of  religion,  and  giving  him  its  painted 
shell.  He  violates  none  of  the  moralities,  he  reads 
his  Bible,  he  cons  his  liturgies  and  his  prayers,  and 
under  a  thin  crust  of  respectability  he  conceals  him- 
self from  himself,  and  perhaps  from  his  fellow-beings, 
because  he  does  no  wrong.  Why  should  he  do 
wrong,  when  the  pressure  from  without  keeps  him 
perforce  in  the  right  ?  But  strip  him  of  these  ad- 
ventitious circumstances,  take  off  the  outward  pres- 
sure, and  let  the  inner  man  of  the  heart  be  released. 
Then  it  is  often  found  that  change  of  scene  changes 
apparently  the  whole  character,  while  really  it  has 
only  disclosed  it  by  taking  off  the  shams  that  in- 
vested it. 

Both  sacred  and  profane  historians  describe  the 
scene  within  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  during  its  siege 
by  the  Roman  army.  The  daughters  of  Judah  late- 


THE   BOOKS    OPENED.  157 

ly  walked  her  streets  in  glory  and  pride.  They 
"  make  a  tinkling  with  their  footclasps,  mincing  their 
steps  as  they  go."  But  now  famine  rages,  and  con- 
ventional rules  are  snapped  asunder  like  threads. 
See  the  relative  strength  of  the  benevolent  and 
selfish  feelings,  while  hunger  and  despair  rend  away 
their  disguises,  and  set  them  free.  Where  now  is 
religion,  that  came  with  votive  offerings  to  the  tem- 
ple ?  where  maternal  love,  of  late  clinging  so  fondly 
to  her  babes  ?  "  The  tender  and  delicate  woman 
that  would  not  adventure  to  set  the  sole  of  her  foot 
upon  the  ground  for  delicateness  and  tenderness,  her 
eye  is  evil  toward  her  son  and  toward  her  daughter 
and  toward  her  little  one,  for  she  killed  and  ate  them 
for  want  of  all  things,  secretly,  in  the  siege."  Even 
such  are  the  susceptibilities  and  fountains  in  the 
heart  which  may  be  hidden  under  a  glare  of  grand- 
eur. And  so,  betimes,  the  Divine  Providence  un- 
covers this  under-world  of  passion  and  motive,  and 
brings  all  its  secrets  into  day. 

Hence  come  our  trials,  not  often  with  crushing 
weight,  but  with  such  sharp  severity  as  to  cleave 
into  our  hearts  and  open  them  to  our  gaze.  God 
smites  our  idols,  that  he  may  measure  to  us  the 
extent  of  our  idolatry.  Not  until  then  did  we 
know  whether  this  world  or  the  other  was  supreme 
in  our  affections.  Not  until  then  did  we  know 
whether  we  had  any  faith  or  not.  We  are  living 
in  conformity  with  Christian  rituals,  and  think  we 
believe  in  immortality.  Perhaps,  in  some  such  hour 
of  self-confidence,  "  we  have  all  been  touched  and 
u 


158  THE   NEW   MAN. 

found  base  metal."  The  death-angel  comes  near 
us ;  our  loved  ones  fall  around  us,  they  seem  to 
drop  into  blank  nothingness,  and  we  see  then  how 
earthly  prospects  had  shut  out  the  heavens,  how 
infidel  are  our  griefs,  and  how  selfish  our  fondest 
loves.  Or  perhaps,  broken  by  sickness,  and  wrung 
with  chronic  pains,  the  sufferer  foregoes  the  pros- 
pects and  pleasures  which  mankind  so  highly  prize. 
We  wonder  what  all  this  means,  till  presently  we 
see  the  meekest  piety  and  the  most  deep  and  un- 
troubled devotion  evolved  from  this  very  condition ; 
and  when  Resignation  there  appears  leaning  on  her 
lowly  and  beautiful  altar,  and  faith  rises  triumphant 
over  pain,  we  are  ready  to  pray  for  the  same  sharp 
instrumentalities,  if  so  be  they  may  work  out  for  us 
the  same  exceeding  weight  of  glory.  For  first  they 
cleave  into  our  natures  and  lay  them  open,  albeit 
we  lie  lowly  and  bleeding,  and  then  we  know  our 
deeper  wants,  and  what  we  should  seek,  and  what 
we  should  mortify  and  deny. 

We  have  heard  much,  and  not  unprofitably,  of  the 
dangerous  tendencies  of  lax  systems  of  religion  and 
morals.  Perhaps  it  does  not  occur  to  every  one, 
that  a  religion  of  artificial  austerity  and  gloom, 
though  less  dangerous  to  the  state,  brings  a  more 
deadly  peril  to  the  individual.  It  keeps  the  outward 
man  from  sinning,  without  cleansing  the  man  with- 
in. It  does  not  remove  the  depravity  out  of  man, 
but  drives  it  in  towards  the  centre  of  his  being,  — 
out  of  his  own  sight  perhaps,  —  and  fixes  and  con- 
geals it  there.  He  walks  the  path  of  obedience 


THE   BOOKS   OPENED.  159 

with  trembling  step,  his  soul  never  swept  with  the 
gales  of  Divine  Love.  But  in  another  world,  if  not 
in  this,  the  inner  man  must  come  forth  and  meet  its 
own  dismal  retributions.  These  artificial  motives 
cease  to  act,  our  sham-work  falls  away  from  us,  and 
the  natural  heart  appears  just  as  it  is,  and  fills  its 
sphere  of  life  with  its  own  hideous  shapings  and 
colorings.  And  yet  many  a  timid  believer  has  been 
driven  into  some  grim-looking  "  ark  of  safety,"  to 
escape  from  the  fire-storms  which  were  expected  to 
come  down  upon  all  who  remained  outside.  They 
are  safe  from  the  storms  without,  but  not  from  the 
pent-up  magazines  within.  That  religion  is  the 
most  safe,  and  that  discipline  the  most  merciful, 
which  explores  the  heart  most  thoroughly,  and  pours 
the  noontide  into  its  chambers. 

Have  you,  reader,  ever  experienced  a  great  sor- 
row? and  if  so,  have  you  not  seen  afterwards  how 
it  discloses  heights  and  depths  in  your  spiritual 
nature  which  you  had  never  known,  and  resources 
upon  which  you  had  never  drawn  ;  how  it  produces 
susceptibilities  which  you  had  never  before  felt; 
how  it  induces  a  tenderness  of  mind  that  makes  it 
ductile  almost  as  the  clay,  and  ready  to  receive  the 
stamp  of  the  Divine  image ;  how  little  animosities 
and  hatreds  are  banished  and  forgotten,  while  the 
heart  has  new  yearnings  towards  all  that  live,  and 
especially  towards  all  that  suffer ;  how  the  soul 
sickens  at  mere  shows  and  appearances,  and  de- 
mands realities,  while  it  hungers  after  the  good  and 
the  true ;  how  this  world  recedes  and  grows  less, 


THE   NEW   MAN. 

while  the  world  of  immortality  comes  on  as  if 
now  first  revealed,  and  incloses  you  in  its  light, — 
just  as,  when  the  glare  of  the  day  is  withdrawn, 
and  the  darkness  moves  over  us,  we  gaze  on  a  new 
sky,  and  bathe  in  the  starry  splendors  of  the  Milky 
Way? 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  BOOKS  OPENED. 
"  There  wag  silence,  and  I  heard  a  roice."  —Job  IT.  16. 

PERHAPS  we  are  as  little  given  to  meditation  and 
solitude  as  any  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  And 
yet  among  the  most  important  aids  to  self-knowledge 
are  the  holy  ministries  of  silence ;  and  there  cannot 
be  self-inspection  at  all  without  it.  People  must 
have,  they  think,  one  of  three  things,  books,  company, 
or  business,  else  time  is  lost  and  the  hours  drag 
heavily  along.  Their  minds  must  be  taken  up  with 
other  people's  thoughts,  with  the  clatter  of  words,  or 
with  the  plunge  into  affairs.  Even  religious  exer- 
cises, as  they  are  often  conducted,  tend  more  to  hide 
the  individual  heart  than  to  reveal  it.  The  world  is 
full  of  noise,  and  there  is  as  much  noise  about  relig- 
ion as  about  business,  and  sometimes  a  great  deal 
more.  When  one  is  always  seeking  to  get  a  quan- 
tity of  emotion  poured  into  him,  that  he  may  pour  it 
out  again,  or  to  have  his  heart-strings  played  upon 
among  sympathizing  crowds,  he  will  often  think  he 
has  "  got  religion,"  till  in  some  hour  of  solitary  temp- 
tation or  midnight  silence  he  finds  his  true  self  had 

14* 


162  THE    NEW    MAN. 

been  lost  sight  of,  and  that  in  the  midst  of  numbers 
he  had  failed  to  hear  the  most  internal  beatings  of 
his  own  heart. 

Has  the  question  never  pressed  painfully  upon  the 
reader,  What  manner  of  person  shall  I  find  myself 
when  death  has  torn  away  all  the  concealments  of 
sensible  things  and  I  stand  alone  with  God  ?  What 
might  I  see  if  my  heart  of  hearts  were  to  symbolize 
itself  before  me,  and  I  saw  all  its  secrets  standing 
out  like  pictures  on  the  wall  ?  Paul  even  had  re- 
volved this  question  anxiously,  lest,  having  preached 
unto  others,  he  himself  should  be  cast  away.  We 
have  the  means  of  obtaining  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions which  shall  not  be  altogether  indistinct. 

We  shall  find,  by  a  little  experiment  and  analysis, 
that  the  thoughts,  images,  and  feelings  that  we  have, 
come  from  two  very  different  sources.  First,  they 
are  suggested  or  forced  upon  us  from  without.  They 
are  poured  in  upon  us  from  natural  objects,  from  en- 
grossing affairs,  from  converse  with  books  and  men. 
None  of  these  trains  of%thought  and  feeling  arc 
strictly  and  entirely  ours.  They  were  put  into  us ; 
and  it  may  be  that  they  have  overlaid  and  concealed 
our  deeper  affections  and  sentiments.  But  there  is 
another  source  of  thought  and  imagery,  and  that  is, 
our  hearts  in  their  spontaneous  workings.  When 
these  thoughts  and  images  come  solely  from  within, 
when  there  is  no  sound  and  no  object  to  suggest 
them  and  they  arise  of  themselves  and  come  up 
throng  after  throng  through  the  brain,  we  may  know 
that  they  originate  in  the  life-cells  of  our  being,  and 


THE   BOOKS    OPENED.  163 

that  they  wear  the  colors  of  our  own  affections.  We 
never  know  so  well  what  is  in  us  as  in  such  moods 
as  these.  In  order  to  this,  all  external  things  must 
be  shut  out  from  the  sight  and  all  sounds  must  die 
upon  the  ear.  For  this  very  purpose  Providence  has 
arranged  the  economy  of  our  affairs,  that  the  noise 
and  the  silence  shall  alternate  each  .with  the  other, 
for  at  the  close  of  every  day  he  arrests  the  busy 
throng  and  hangs  around  the  curtains  of  darkness, 
and  there  is  no  voice  in  the  streets  and  no  sound  of 
wheels  and  footsteps ;  — 

"  When  fades  the  glimmering  landscape  on  the  sight, 
And  all  the  air  a  solemn  stillness  holds." 

Would  we  know,  therefore,  whether  the  heart  be 
clean  within,  and  how  it  would  be  likely  to  appear 
when  these  outward  swathings  have  been  stripped 
from  us  and  its  hidden  processes  lie  exposed  ?  In  an 
hour  when  the  wings  of  silence  are  brooding  upon 
the  spirit,  and  all  external  scenery  has  been  blotted 
out,  watch  the  thoughts  and  fancies  that  come  up 
from  within !  Be  simply  a  spectator ;  let  them 
come  of  themselves,  and  sweep  away  as  they  will. 
Then  it  might  often  be  found,  that  he  who  thought 
himself  regenerate  would  discover  impure  fountains 
in  his  heart ;  would  see  evil  thoughts  and  corrupt 
imagery  coming  up  out  of  it  and  thronging  the 
chambers  of  the  brain;  would  see  memories  coming 
back  from  places  of  forbidden  pleasure,  and  looking 
pleasant  as  in  days  of  old  ;  would  find  that  sin  had 
its  charms  and  lures,  and  that  he  rolled  it  as  a  sweet 
morsel  und$r  his  tongue,  —  that  the  whole  style  of 


164 


THE   NEW    MAN. 


his  thoughts  was  earthly  and  not  heavenly,  selfish 
and  sensual,  and  not  spiritual  and  pure. 

I  would  not  even  lose  the  benefit  of  the  dreams 
that  visit  my  pillow,  of  which  Charles  Lamb  said, 
more  truly  perhaps  than  he  intended,  "  We  try  to 
spell  in  them  the  alphabet  of  the  invisible  world, 
and  think  we  know  already  how  It  shall  be  with  us." 
For  what  are  they,  and  what  do  they  mean  ?  They 
are  the  motions  of  our  involuntary  machinery.  By 
our  voluntary  powers  we  array  about  us  such  scenery 
as  we  will,  and  sit  down  amid  sights  and  sounds  that 
please  and  regale  the  senses.  But  when  the  volun- 
tary powers  are  suspended,  the  involuntary  are  wide 
awake,  and  they  paint  a  new  scenery  about  us :  they 
dip  their  pencils  in  our  most  secret  desires,  and  in 
the  colors  of  those  desires  they  set  all  things  in  array 
about  us.  They  are  the  Guides  and  Raphaels  of 
our  inner  world,  and  their  shadings  and  colorings  are 
often  the  true  representations  of  the  inner  life.  A 
man  shall  then  find,  perhaps,  his  most  cherished 
plans  and  most  secret  inclinations  out  of  him.  He 
shall  see  his  secret  self  projected  in  the  images  that 
float  around,  and  form  the  skies  and  landscapes  of 
this  microcosmic  and  spirit  realm,  suggesting  to  us 
that  sure  and  deep-working  spiritual  law  by  which 
the  celestial  and  infernal  scenery  are  produced,  — 
the  heaven  and  hell  hereafter,  which  are  the  exfigu- 
rations  of  a  redeemed  or  a  lost  humanity.  If  there- 
fore the  objects  of  pursuit  which  these  involuntary 
powers  array  before  us  are  mainly  wrong,  and  the 
scenery  which  they  paint  is  prevailingly  impure,  we 


THE    BOOKS   OPENED.  165 

may  know  that  we  need  cleansing  yet ;  for  when 
our  physical  and  spiritual  natures  are  both  brought 
into  entire  harmony  with  Divine  laws,  their  involun- 
tary motions  even  shall  produce  no  images  but  those 
of  white-robed  innocence. 

But  there  is  another  privilege  which  comes  from 
the  holy  ministries  of  solitude  and  silence.  It  is 
solemn,  devout,  intense  meditation.  There  is  com- 
paratively little  of  this.  There  is  much  reading  and 
meeting-going,  and  hurrying  to  and  fro  on  business, 
but  little  of  the  brooding  spirit  of  thought.  And 
yet  without  the  latter  there  is  hardly  such  a  thing 
as  thorough  self-knowledge  and  repentance.  Men 
are  moved  in  masses,  or  trained  to  the  observance 
of  conventional  rules,  and  think  themselves  tolerably 
good.  But  not  till  they  get  out  of  the  crowd  and  go 
away,  alone,  and  there  study  the  Divine  law,  and 
apply  it  to  their  individual  failings  and  proclivities, 
does  the  secret  heart  lie  exposed,  and  the  light  of 
self-conviction  flash  down  through  all  its  windings, 
and  the  beauteous  light  break  on  them  from  afar  for 
whose  repose  they  inly  sigh.  We  live  in  external 
things  and  seek  external  excitements.  And  thus 
the  mind  takes  into  itself  so  much  of  what  is  coarse 
and  earthly.  Modern  Christendom  has  abundance  of 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and  formalism  and  sensu- 
alism are  not  b'kely  soon  to  pass  away.  But  where 
are  its  Essenes,  who  sit  alone  in  the  solemn  shadows 
where  contemplation  explores  the  starry  deeps  ?  We 
need  to  pass  alternately  from  the  inward  to  the  out- 
ward, and  from  the  outward  back  again  to  the  in- 


166  THE   NEW    MAN. 

ward ;  for  unless  we  seek  these  meditative  moods, 
we  sink  lower  and  lower,  till  we  are  buried  in  sense. 
We  lose  all  heavenly-mindedness,  all  clear  intui- 
tion. "We  lose  the  tidings  of  immortality  that  float- 
around  us,  and  sound  fainter  and  fainter  within  us. 
We  lose  that  knowledge  of  ourselves  which  is  the 
first  condition  of  our  regeneration,  and  without  which 
all  other  knowledge  is  superficial.  And  we  never 
ascend  the  glory-smitten  summits  whence  a  contem- 
plative faith  gazes  full  into  the  opening  Paradise 
of  God. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED. 

"  The  mind  of  man  desireth  eyermore  to  know  the  truth  according  to  the  most 
infallible  certainty  which  the  nature  of  things  can  yield.  The  greatest  assurance 
generally  with  all  men,  is  that  which  we  hare  by  plain  aspect  and  intuitive  behold- 
ing. Where  we  cannot  attain  unto  this,  there  what  appeareth  to  be  true,  by  strong 
and  invincible  demonstration,  such  as  wherein  it  is  not  in  any  way  possible  to  be  de- 
ceived, thereunto  the  mind  doth  necessarily  assent,  neither  is  it  in  the  choice  there- 
of to  do  otherwise.  And  hi  case  these  both  do  fail,  then  which  way  greatest  prob- 
ability leadeth,  thither  the  mind  doth  evermore  incline."  — HOOKER,  Ecc.  POLITY, 

n.7. 

THERE  are,  we  premise,  two  kinds  of  revelation 
from  God  to  man.  Truth  may  come  to  us  through 
the  deep  and  clear  intuitions  of  the  mind  itself, 
when  its  dominions  are  given  to  the  inward  sense, 
reposing  in  the  sunlight  of  peace  like  a  landscape 
beneath  the  eye.  Then  we  know  the  truth  or  the 
falsehood  of  a  proposition,  not  by  reasoning  out  its 
results,  but  by  the  way  it  affects  our  higher  sensibili- 
ties and  by  "  intuitive  beholding."  A  human  na- 
ture entirely  uncorrupt  and  unperverted  would  need 
no  other  revelation.  Never  darkened  by  sin,  never 
overclouded  with  hereditary  evil,  it  would  receive  the 
Divine  light  and  reflect  the  Divine  charms  in  child- 
like innocence,  "  lying  in  Abraham's  bosom  all  the 
year."  Nature  would  always  be  an  open  page,  and 
matter  always  the  true  and  living  symbol  of  spirit ; 


168  THE   NEW    MAN. 

for  the  "  vis  fervida  mentis,"  the  God  glowing 
within,  would  be  an  ever-present  interpreter  to  show 
a  divine  meaning  in  the  humblest  things.  We  in- 
fer from  the  earliest  records,  that  such  were  the  reve- 
lations made  to  primitive  man.  He  had  none  other, 
and  he  needed  none.  His  was  the  innocence  which 
had  no  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  by  sorrowful  ex- 
perience, his  the  peace  that  had  never  been  ruffled 
by  sin.  Consequently  there  was  that  constant  reve- 
lation of  God  to  man  that  comes  through  the  inmost 
mind,  and  keeps  it  replenished  with  that  mild  wisdom 
which  is  better  than  sagacity,  and  those  intuitions 
which  are  a  surer  guide  than  philosophy.  No  theo- 
logians were  needed  for  creed-making,  no  logicians 
to  prove  a  future  life,  since  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
God  was  always  audible,  and  the  soul  itself  was  full 
of  immortality.  The  imagination,  unpolluted  by 
the  imagery  of  sinful  passion,  unoccupied  by  the 
phantasma  of  error,  might  furnish  a  white  ground  on 
which  heavenly  things  would  copy  themselves,  and 
might  become  the  picture-gallery  of  the  glories  of  a 
higher  world. 

But  when  this  state  of  innocence  and  purity  is 
lost,  the  Divinity  shines  through  our  corruption  with 
refracted  and  broken  rays.  Other  instincts  stir 
within  us,  and  other  voices  speak  than  those  which 
come  from  God.  Yea,  a  long  line  of  foul  ancestry 
is  speaking  through  us,  and  pouring  the  tides  of  its 
perverted  life  through  our  bosoms,  tending  thence 
to  darken  and  to  sensualize  the  reason.  Instinct  is  no 
longer  a  safe  guide,  intuition  no  longer  a  revelation. 


ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED.  169 

A  man  might  take  the  combustion  of  his  own  pas- 
sions for  the  glow  of  the  God  within  him,  and  his 
own  wildering  fancies  for  the  Divine  Reason.  Thus 
left  to  the  downward  impulsions  that  move  him  from 
within,  he  might  reach  that  state  of  desolation  which 
the  prophet  describes  when  darkness  is  put  for  light 
and  evil  for  good.  "  He  feedeth  on  ashes ;  a  deceived 
heart  hath  turned  him  aside,  that  he  cannot  deliver  his 
soul,  nor  say,  Is  there  not  a  lie  in  my  right  hand  ?  " 
Then  it  is  that  a  Divine  Rule  of  life,  external  to  him- 
self, becomes  essential  to  his  regeneration.  He  must 
have  some  sure  standard  out  of  himself  by  which  all 
that  is  in  him  can  be  brought  to  the  test.  Hence 
another  kind  of  revelation,  one  which  comes  from 
without,  with  those  truths  embodied  and  placed  be- 
fore us  which  had  been  darkened  in  the  chaos 
within.  The  first  revelation  comes  in  the  spontane- 
ous workings  of  the  faculties,  and  is  the  transfusion 
of  heaven  through  the  soul.  The  last  comes  through 
agencies  external  to  ourselves,  and  lays  a  hand  of 
authority  upon  us.  It  finds  us  in  our  defilement,  in 
our  gropings  and  wanderings ;  it  hedges  us  round 
with  restraints,  it  holds  up  before  us  the  truth  which 
we  had  lost  and  were  toiling  after  in  vain,  and  guides 
us  through  the  rugged  path  of  self-denial  to  its  in- 
ward possession  again.  Let  those  make  impulse 
their  only  law  whose  impulsions  are  the  sure 
promptings  of  the  Divinity.  Let  them  make  the  in- 
ner light  their  only  guide,  whose  reason  has  had  no 
mildew  from  earth-born  sentiments,  that  is,  in  whom 
human  nature  preserves  all  its  purity  and  symmetry. 

15 


170  THE    NEW    MAN. 

Those  who  know  themselves  know  that  their  na- 
tures are  no  such  media  of  Divine  rays. 

Hence  the  necessity  of  a  revelation  to  the  out- 
ward man  also ;  and  it  must  come  down  with  its 
proofs  as  low  as  man  has  fallen.  If  he  has  fallen 
into  sense,  and  become  inlocked  with  sense,  and 
shut  in  by  his  external  perceptions,  then  the  proofs 
of  the  revelation  must  come  down  into  sense  and  find 
him  there.  Hence  the  Word  made  flesh  attended 
with  its  signs  in  the  natural  world.  Hence  the  Bible 
with  its  attestations  of  miracle,  the  embodiment  of 
everlasting  truth  and  of  infallible  rules  for  belief  and 
practice.  It  comes  at  first,  and  commands  us  with 
the  voice  of  God ;  it  is  our  master,  and  not  our  ser- 
vant ;  it  may  even  be  a  hard  master,  and  place  us  in 
a'  severe  and  painful  school.  But  it  has  this  pecu- 
liar proof  both  of  its  infolded  Divinity  and  its  reno- 
vating power,  —  that,  received  at  first  upon  simple 
external  evidence,  the  evidence  grows  more  and  more 
internal,  till  its  pages  become  magically  self-lumi- 
nous. The  path  of  self-denial  into  which  it  com- 
mands our  roving  feet,  though  at  first  steep  and  dif- 
ficult, proves  afterwards,  like  Milton's  path  of  educa- 
tional progress,  "  so  smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly 
prospect,  that  the  harp  of  Orpheus  were  not  more 
charming." 

In  asserting  this  necessity  of  a  revelation  from 
withou^,  we  are  saying  nothing  in  derogation  of  the 
revelation  from  within.  We  are  simply  stating  the 
facts  of  history  and  consciousness,  when  we  say  that 
the  latter  became  insufficient,  by  reason  of  human 


ANOTHER    BOOK    OPENED.  171 

degeneracy.  Not  that  these,  inward  revealings  en- 
tirely cease,  or  can  cease  ;  for  in  that  case  the  out- 
ward revelation  would  be  of  no  avail.  It  is  to 
clarify  this  inner  light,  to  restore  it  to  its  ancient  ef- 
fulgence, to  afford  an  unerring  standard  by  which  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  flicker  of  strange  fire  within 
us,  —  it  is  for  this  that  we  have  given  us  the  Word 
written,  and  the  Word  made  flesh.  So,  then,  the 
unerring  voice  that  speaks  from  the  Bible  interprets 
the  voice  that  speaks  in  man,  and  distinguishes  it 
from  his  own  irregular  frames  and  fancies,  each  har- 
monizing with  the  other,  since  each  is  a  separate 
strain  of  the  eternal  melodies. 

The  instrumentality  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  work 
of  human  regeneration  becomes  manifest.  It  is  this 
which  gave  to  Protestantism  all  its  power  over 
other  communions,  as  the  front  phalanx  in  the 
world's  progress.  And  because  Protestantism  would 
not  trust  to  its  own  first  principle,  but  fell  to  Ro- 
manizing, it  split  into  jarring  and  counteracting 
forces.  To  come  in  free  contact  with  human  souls, 
and  act  on  them  as  the  supreme  energy,  and  lift 
them  up  into  its  broad  and  warm  effulgence,  the 
Bible  must  be  the  sole  divine  creed  of  the  individ- 
ual and  the  Church.  Not  until  the  inner  revelation 
has  been  universally  reproduced,  must  any  body's 
interpretations  of  it  come  between  the  catechumen 
and  his  infallible  guide.  Not  until  truth  is  seen  once 
more  by  intuitive  beholding,  and  the  outward  revela- 
tion is  superseded  by  the  inward,  can  any  commun- 
ion of  believers  accept  an  inferior  rule.  For  then 


172  THE   NEW    MAN. 

they  fall  back  into  the  same  deadly  peril  that  beset 
man  before  the  revelation  was  received,  that,  namely, 
of  mistaking  human  conceptions  for  the  Divine  rea- 
son, and  human  feelings  and  passions  for  the  glow 
of  God  within.  Because  he  was  fallen,  he  needed 
a  divine  creed.  Only  because  he  is  fallen,  will  he 
accept  or  impose  any  other.  When  intuition  shall 
be  unerring  will  human  creeds  become  safe,  and 
when  they  become  safe  they  are  useless. 

Disregarding  these  obvious  principles,  Protestant- 
ism let  go  the  Bible  as  the  sole  standard  by  which 
we  are  to  gauge  our  intuitive  sentiments  and  elevat- 
.ed  private  interpretations  of  the  Bible  in  its  place; 
and  straightway  it  fell  asunder  into  a  thousand  little 
popedoms,  and  hence  the  janglings  of  our  Christian 
Babel.  If  its  sects  have  attained  to  entire  regenera- 
tion, (God  help  us  if  this  chaos  is  such  a  state  !)  then, 
like  man  in  Eden,  they  may  dispense  with  creeds 
and  Bibles  together,  since  divine  truth  rewrites 
itself  every  day  upon  the  heart.  If  they  have  not  so 
attained,  then  their  confessions  are  tinctured  with 
the  falsities  of  the  natural  man,  and  woe  is  to  him 
who  binds  them  about  his  neck,  or  writes  them  on 
the  frontlets  between  his  eyes. 

In  using  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  therefore,  as  a 
means  of  self-knowledge  and  regeneration,  two  es- 
sential conditions  will  become  obvious.  One  has 
reference^to  the  authority  with  which  they  should  be 
received,  and  the  other  to  the  order  in  which  they 
should  be  studied. 

Their  authority  must  be  supreme  and  undivided. 


ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED.  173 

We  come  away  from  the  popedoms  with  which 
Christendom  is  distracted,  whether  the  greater  or  the 
less  ones,  lest  we  be  left  on  the  low  level  where  they 
are.  We  rise  out  of  hearing  of  these  earthly  noises- 
We  enter  that  still  region  that  "  lies  away  from 
broils."  We  ascend  the  sacred  mount  and  talk  with 
God  alone.  We  leave  the  formulas  which  have  no 
warmth  in  their  blood  and  no  speculation  in  their 
eyes,  and  come  before  the  majestic  form  and  the 
bright  countenance  of  Truth  itself.  We  escape  the 
temptations  of  those  who  bring  down  the  text  and 
make  it  tally  with  church  creeds  in  order  to  escape 
church  censure  and  excision.  We  avoid  the  guilt  of 
the  sects  who  break  up  the  awful  form  of  truth  into 
fragments  and  divide  it  among  themselves,  parting 
its  garments  among  them,  and  casting  lots  for  its 
vesture.  Two  alternatives  are  presented  to  us  in 
the  present  state  of  the  Christian  world,  —  either  to 
bring  down  the  Divine  Word  into  our  own  service 
and  that  of  our  denomination,  and  so  turn  it  to  pri- 
vate or  partial  ends,  or  let  that  Word  bring  us  up 
into  its  own  region  of  light  and  peace,  and  transfig- 
ure us  amid  its  splendors.  We  must  choose  the 
latter. 

Coming  thus  to  the  Divine  Word,  how  or  in  what 
order  shall  we  study  it  ? 

The  Bible  is  a  revelation  from  God,  but  it  is  not 
solely  or  even  principally  a  revelation  of  God.  It  is 
also  a  revelation  of  man.  Every  possible  condition 
of  human  nature  is  here  painted  in  colors  that  live. 
All  things  pertaining  to  human  experience,  from  the 


174  THE   NEW   MAN. 

grossest  naturalism  to  the  highest  spiritualism,  are 
here  quarried  and  brought  out  to  view.  Experience 
what  you  will,  you  shall  find  your  experience  here. 
Let  your  deepest  want  become  known  to  you,  and 
when  you  open  these  pages  you  shall  find  that  want 
sending  up  its  prevailing  cry.  In  the  Psalms  alone 
humanity  articulates  its  whole  range  of  sentiments 
through  all  their  compass  of  tones.  The  life  of  the 
Saviour,  from  his  lowest  humiliation  to  his  final  glori- 
fication, is  the  history  of  every  possible  conflict  between 
the  good  and  the  evil,  with  the  ensuing  victory  and 
glory.  It  is  the  majestic  epic  of  humanity,  where 
every  stage  of  its  progress  is  divinely  pictured  forth. 
Even  the  mystical  books  are  full  of  human  nature. 
As  the  spirit-world  is  the  scene  where  man's  impris- 
oned powers  are  unlocked  and  set  free,  so  a  descrip- 
tion of  that  world  is  simply  man  opened.  In  the 
progress  of  our  self-revealings  we  shall  get  a  key  to 
the  sense  of  the  Apocalypse  itself.  It  is  (we  suggest) 
the  inmost  mind  led  forth  on  a  theatre  where  there 
is  no  stint  to  its  ongoings.  Its  gorgeous  cloud- 
land  is  none  other  than  man  uncovered.  The  judg- 
ment day  which  the  Scriptures  describe  does  not 
reveal  the  wrath  of  God  superimposed  upon  the  crea- 
ture, but  a  development  out  of  human  nature,  the 
unrolling  of  all  its  secrets  into  day.  The  Paradise 
of  God,  adorned  with  the  tree  of  life,  and  threaded 
with  streams  of  water,  is  not  the  sensual  heaven  of 
Orientalism,  but  rather  the  state  where  purified  souls 
are  surrounded  with  their  own  lovely  creations.  So 
we  say,  first,  Divine  revelation  is  a  revelation  of  man, 


ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED,  175 

and  according  to  his  upward  or  downward  tendencies 
it  is  an  apocalypse  of  glory,  or  an  apocalypse  of  woe. 

Then,  again,  it  is  a  revelation  of  God.  It  is  the 
Divine  mind  and  will  unveiled  toward  man.  It  is 
the  Eternal  Wisdom  brought  out  to  view  in  an  all- 
harmonizing  system  of  doctrines,  calculated  to  touch 
man's  palsied  powers,  and  make  them  live  again. 
It  is  infinite  truth  unrolled  in  its  order  to  the  eye 
and  the  intellect,  which  else  had  been  apprehended 
by  an  inward  sense,  and  been  perceived  by  intuitive 
beholding.  So 'that  the  life  of  God  and  the  life  of 
man  are  both  revealed  here,  —  the  former  acting 
upon  the  latter,  seeking  to  purify  it  and  bring  it 
into  harmony  with  itself.  The  Bible,  therefore,  is 
an  exhibition  of  the  things  hidden  within  us,  —  hid- 
den often  far  beneath  the  reach  of  our  conscious- 
ness. Deep  in  our  souls  there  are  the  same  two- 
fold forces,  —  the  Divine  life  and  the  human,  with 
their  strivings  and  interactions  ;  only,  as  we  be- 
come degenerate  and  live  chiefly  in  externals,  these 
things  within  us  are  seen  dimly  or  not  at  all ;  but 
the  Bible  holds  them  up  before  us  again  on  a  page 
that  is  open  and  illumined. 

All  this  suggests  to  us  the  way  and  the  order  in 
which  the  Scriptures  should  be  used  and  studied,  as 
aids  in  our  regeneration.  "We  may  read  them  only 
in  the  order  of  chapter  and  verse,  with  a  whole 
lumber-house  of  commentaries  to  help  us,  and  yet 
know  little  or  nothing  of  what  is  in  them.  We 
should  read  them  in  the  order  of  our  own  experi- 
ences and  needs.  These  are  developed  in  succession 


176  THE    NEW    MAN. 

as  we  advance  in  the  life  of  regeneration.  Divine 
Providence,  whenever  we  give  ourselves  into  his 
hands  like  little  children,  leads  us  along  through  the 
circuit  of  our  self-revealings,  so  as  to  make  us  feel 
each  in  its  time  our  inmost  needs,  and  that  drawing 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  towards  those  truths  by  which 
these  needs  shall  be  satisfied.  For  this  reason  the 
word  of  God  is  called  bread,  water,  implying  that  it 
is  to  be  sought  for  when  we  hunger  and  when  we 
thirst.  It  has  doctrines  adapted  to  every  possible 
change  of  our  life,  and  themes  which  at  special 
times  are  urged  upon  us  with  special  power,  and 
hold  our  attention  awake.  If  we  seek  it  for  the 
sole  end  of  self-purification,  searching  for  the  truth 
which  our  present  condition  requires  and  our  nature 
craves,  we  shall  be  drawn  to  the  pages  where  that 
truth  waits  for  us,  and  it  shall  rise  on  our  vision 
with  clearer  and  clearer  blaze,  as  the  astronomer 
sought  the  new  planet,  and  wept  for  joy  when  it 
crossed  over  the  glass.  For  the  Bible  being  a  reve- 
lation of  humanity,  every  aspect  of  it,  as  it  changes 
from  shade  into  light,  is  painted  with  the  Divine 
pencil  upon  its  leaves.  Every  needful  doctrine  will 
meet  us  at  every  new  stage,  and  when  we  have 
turned  it  into  conduct,  another  will  rise  on  our 
sight.  And  so  star  after  star  will  come  down  into 
our  sky,  and  Christianity  be  given  to  us  as  an  ever- 
unfolding  system,  its  doctrines  pouring  on  our  path 
their  blending  and  beautiful  rays. 

We  will  now  illustrate  by  three  specifications  the 
value  of  this  mode  of  using  the  Divine  oracles. 


ANOTHER   BOOK    OPENED.  177 

Perhaps  the  first  question  which  an  earnest  mind 
is  called  to  grapple  with,  is  the  question  of  innate 
depravity.  As  a  question  of  speculative  theology, 
presented  to  us  from  without,  it  may  be  settled  any 
way  by  reading  works  on  original  sin  or  the  dignity 
of  man,  according  as  one's  fancies  or  ecclesiastical 
relations  may  happen  to  be.  But  let  the  question 
come  up  from  within,  and  press  for  an  answer  till 
it  hinders  us  from  sleep.  It  comes  sooner  or  later 
to  almost  every  one  not  utterly  lost  in  worldliness ; 
sometimes  in  vague  dissatisfactions  with  present  at- 
tainment; sometimes  in  longings  after  peace;  some- 
times in  the  unrealized  anticipations  of  our  dream- 
ing childhood,  when  the  dews  that  sparkled  on  the 
foliage  in  the  first  golden  light  have  all  disappeared, 
and  naught  remains  but  the  sweat  and  heat  and 
burden  of  the  day ;  sometimes  in  the  avenging  con- 
sciousness of  God's  inly  pervading  and  broken  laws. 
Now  if  the  inquirer  settles  this  question  by  the 
"  standard  works  "  or  the  popular  preachers  of  his 
church,  he  will  most  assuredly  fall  into  the  ruts  of 
some  provincial  theology,  and  follow  the  unceasing 
round  of  its  creaking  wains.  But  if  he  comes  free- 
ly and  freshly  to  the  Divine  Word,  with  an  earnest 
beseeching  that  his  own  heart  may  be  unveiled,  he 
will  find  that  word  quick  and  powerful,  shooting 
darts  of  light  through  the  deepest  places  of  his  soul. 
There  are  two  classes  of  passages  where  the  whole 
matter  of  human  nature  and  human  wants  is  treated 
at  large.  There  is  the  narrative  portion  and  the 
ethical.  In  the  former,  man  is  revealed  historically 


178  THE    NEW    MAN. 

and  experimentally  ;  in  the  latter,  by  that  divine  logic 
which'  pierces  the  heart  and  rends  its  gauzy  sophis- 
tries away.  There  is  everywhere  a  basis  of  fact, 
and  on  this  basis  rests  the  work  of  divine  argumen- 
tation. Large  portions  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
human  nature  exposed.  The  Psalms  are  its  deep, 
spontaneous  utterances.  In  the  New  we  see  it 
wrestling  with  its  foes  in  the  desert  of  temptation, 
or  bending  low  under  its  sorrowful  burden  in  the 
shades  of  the  garden.  As  specimens  of  the  ethical 
portion,  take  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  discourse 
with  Nicodemus,  or  Paul's  delineation  of  the  higher 
and  lower  nature.  And  everywhere,  out  of  heaven 
and  out  of  Christ,  are  revealings  of  the  Divine  na- 
ture, giving  us  gleams  of  an  untold  and  unimagined 
purity  that  pierce  the  darkness  of  our  hearts  and 
make  the  darkness  visible. 

Another  question  is  sure  to  arise,  and  another  want 
is  sure  to  be  felt,  —  that  of  atonement  for  sin.  When 
this  question  comes  up  from  without,  men  invent 
theories  of  the  Divine  government  and  go  off  into 
endless  logomachies.  When  it  comes  up  from  with- 
in, and  urges  us  to  the  Divine  record,  we  find  our 
deepest  experience  arrayed  before  us,  and  the  truth 
that  speaks  to  our  condition.  There  is  the  narrative 
of  the  coming,  life,  death,  resurrection,  ascension,  and 
glorification  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  his  second  com- 
ing as  the  Comforter,  to  suffuse  the  penitent  heart 
with  the  sweet  elixir  of  peace,  —  a  constellation  of 
truths  under  whose  guidance  we  cannot  miss  our 
way.  Then  the  ethics  of  the  subject  of  atonement 


ANOTHER   BOOK   OPENED.  179 

are  set  forth  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal,  —  itself 
a  comprehensive  and  lovely  theology.  The  facts  of 
our  consciousness  are  here  drawn  out  in  the  clearest 
array.  Every  step  of  our  progress  from  the  city  of 
Destruction  to  the  city  of  God  is  here  mapped  out 
before  us.  Here  is  our  fall  and  desolation.  Here 
is  repentance,  conversion,  and  reconciliation,  when 
we  come  home  again,  and  the  father  embraces  and 
kisses  his  child,  and  puts  the  best  robe  upon  him, 
—  even  as  the  great  Father  gives  to  his  renewed 
and  reconciled  children  the  clothing  of  new  and 
heavenly  moralities. 

There  are  seasons  when  the  themes  of  immortality 
come  home  to  our  bosoms  in  such  shapes  that  they 
will  not  away  at  our  bidding.  When  the  chair  is 
vacant,  and  the  chamber  is  still,  and  affection  is 
weeping  at  the  bier,  we  dread  the  mockery  of  delu- 
sions. We  want  realities. 

It  will  be  obvious,  on  a  moment's  thought,  how 
closely  this  subject  connects  itself  with  human  na- 
ture and  human  redemption,  and  that  to  reveal  man 
here  is  to  reveal  his  state  hereafter.  When  we  form 
to  ourselves  artificial  theories  spun  from  the  meta- 
physics of  the  Church,  we  do  jiot  lay  hold  of  the 
life  to  come,  nor  see  the  sublime  pneumatology 
which  the  Bible  unfolds.  To  open  man's  book  of 
life,  is  to  break  the  seals  from  the  word.  If  heaven 
and  hell  are  not  arbitrary  appointments,  but  man 
uncovered,  and  his  powers  led  out  and  dramatized 
on  an  ampler  field,  then  our  souls  are  openings  into 
another  world,  and  from  this  outlook  we  see  adown 


180  THE    NEW   MAN. 

the  long  avenues,  and  their  solemn  forms  come 
before  us  as  in  a  mystic  glass.  Let  this  subject 
come  up  in  its  order,  after  human  nature  with  its 
deep-working  laws  has  been  revealed  to  us,  and  a 
"  theory  of  the  future  life  "  based  on  indubitable  fact 
would  be 'developed ;  the  letter  of  Scripture  would 
shine  white  as  the  light,  bursting  with  the  revealing 
mysteries  of  an  hereafter.  False  and  artificial  the- 
ories of  man  connect  themselves  indissolubly  with 
false  and  artificial  theories  of  a  future  life,  for  the 
future  life  is  in  fact  our  present  life  concealed  and 
folded  up.  The  land  of  immortality  becomes  base- 
less and  spectral.  The  beings  with  which  the  tech- 
nical theologies  have  peopled  it,  are  any  thing  but 
men  and  women.  No  wonder  the  question  is  anx- 
iously raised,  "  Shall  we  know  our  friends  hereaf- 
ter ?  "  Who  could  recognize  among  those  winged 
and  shadowy  beings  "  the  old,  familiar  faces  "  ? 

We  are  burdened  with  a  sense  of  the  importance 
of  the  theme  we  are  handling,  so  deep,  that  we  fail 
to  transfer  it  to  our  pages.  We  believe  that  all  our 
costly  apparatus  of  interpretation  does  little  more 
as  yet  than  touch  the  letter  of  the  Divine  volume, 
but  that  its  spirit  is  yet  to  break  upon  us  as  never 
before,  and  that  the  day  which  Robinson  foresaw  is 
yet  to  dawn.  For  thickly  as  the  theologians  have 
woven  their  web  around  this  book,  like  the  silk- 
worm spinning  her  threads,  "  till  she  clouds  herself 
all  o'er,"  yet  even  now,  when  touched  with  reverent 
hand,  there  come  sparkles  from  its  muffled  truths, 
as  from  jars  surcharged  with  electric  fire.  The 


ANOTHER  BOOK  OPENED.  181 

wants  of  these  times  urge  us  to  seek  with  fresh  dili- 
gence, and  with  new  preparation  of  heart,  the  re- 
sponses of  the  sacred  oracles.  Let  us  leave  the 
sects  in  the  oblivious  past.  At  least  let  us  get  out 
of  these  prisons,  into  which  light  comes  in  scant 
allowance,  and  only  through  stained  glass.  With 
all  our  varied  culture,  our  systems  of  education  and 
our  popular  literature,  still  comes  the  question  from 
earnest  and  famished  natures,  Who  will  show  us 
any  good  ?  They  go  to  this  and  that  gathering  for 
social  stimulus ;  to  "  popular  preachers,"  who  out  of 
their  own  eloquence  and  ingenuity  attempt  to  sup- 
ply food  for  the  soul,  and  still  the  soul  hungers  and 
thirsts.  Commentators  attempt  to  open  the  Divine 
Word,  but  it  will  not  open  at  their  bidding.  They 
smite  the  rock,  but  still  the  soul  hungers  and  thirsts. 
Each  sect  sets  forth  its  manuals  of  doctrine,  and 
makes  out  its  case,  but  still  there  is  a  waiting  and 
a  pause.  We  have  religious  excitements,  and  ma- 
chinery to  keep  them  up.  Those  that  work  the  ma- 
chinery get  out  of  breath,  and  then  it  stops,  and  there 
is  a  waiting  and  a  pause.  Some  go  back  to  Rome 
for  rest  and  shelter,  "  like  a  child  seeking  nourishment 
and  repose  on  the  cold  bosom  of  its  dead  mother." 
All  the  while,  the  book  out  of  which  light  is  to 
come  lies  upon  our  shelves,  —  ready  to  yield  its  rev- 
elations, not  to  some  costly  apparatus  of  interpreters, 
but  to  the  humble  and  seeking  mind ;  ready  to  give 
light  when  restored  to  its  ancient  authority  in  the 
Church,  and  the  usurping  creeds  of  the  logomachists 
are  taken  away.  Let  the  inquirer  forsake  these, 

16 


182  THE    NEW    MAN. 

and  steal  an  hour  every  day  from  the  literature  that 
surfeits,  but  does  not  satisfy  and  save.  And  when 
the  great  problems  of  life  and  destiny  come  up  each 
in  its  turn,  and  press  painfully  upon  him,  let  him 
not  give  over  till  the  truth  stands  clear  to  the  intel- 
lect, and  through  that  pours  a  mellow  sunshine  into 
his  soul.  Then  the  truth  lost  shall  emerge  anew  and 
become  intuition  again.  Then  the  inner  folds  of  the 
heart  shall  be  laid  open,  ere  come  the  solemn  dis- 
closures of  the  judgment  time. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

CONFLICT  AND  VICTORY. 


"  The  language  of  the  Bible  harmonizes  with  all  human  experience,  in  declaring 
that  all  progress  implies  effort,  resistance,  combat ;  —  but  there  are  intervals  of 
peace,  —  intervals  when  the  battle  of  that  day  is  won  and  the  wearied  soldier  rests 
and  rejoices  ;  intervals  when  the  climbing  pilgrim  has  reached  a  mountain-top,  and 
while  he  breathes  the  sweet  freshness  of  the  air,  he  looks  back  upon  his  nights  of 
darkness  and  his  days  of  toil,  and  around  upon  a  world  now  glowing  with  beauty  be- 
cause the  love  that  fills  it  is  for  that  hour  unveiled,  and  upward  to  a  sky  from  which 
the  clouds  have  melted  or  else  give  back  the  sunshine  in  golden  light,  and  forward 
to  the  distant  and  loftier  summits  where  peace  has  a  mote  abiding  home."  —  PAR- 
BO.NS'S  ESSAYS. 


WE  have  described  the  antagonistic  forces  which 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  human  nature.  There 
is  hereditary  evil,  with  its  passions  and  its  brood  of 
lies.  There  is  the  effluent  Spirit  of  God  always 
immanent  in  human  nature,  always  claiming  it  as 
his  own  province  of  light  and  love.  There  is  the 
uprising  world  of  darkness,  with  all  its  tempting 
fiends ;  there  are  the  bending  heavens,  with  their 
guardian  angels ;  and  the  field  of  conflict  is  the  soul 
of  man.  The  alternations  of  defeat  and  victory,  un- 
til the  final  catastrophe  takes  place,  constitute  the 
solemn  drama  of  humanity.  Mankind  in  all  ages 
have  been  conscious  of  this  conflict,  and  the  highest 
achievement  which  any  nation's  literature  hath  ever 


184  THE    NEW    MAN. 

made,  has  been  worthily  to  conceive  and  picture 
it  forth.  One  of  the  oldest  poems  in  Hindoo  litera- 
ture is  a  noble  epic  which  sets  forth  in  mythical 
form  this  sacred  war.  God  becomes  incarnate  in 
order  to  combat  the  kingdom  of  evil,  whose  genii 
were  overrunning  the  kingdom  of  light,  and  the 
Christian  reader  is  startled  as  he  goes  along,  to  find 
Christian  ideas  antedating  the  greater  portion  of 
his  own  Bible,  and  warming  and  inspiring  the  oldest 
profane  literature  in  the  world.*  With  this  conflict 
Divine  revelation  opens,  and  with  this  it  closes. 
The  conflict  begins  amid  the  blooming  scenery  of 
Eden,  and  it  winds  up  in  the  gorgeous  visions  of 
St.  John.  Almost  every  book  describes  an  act  in 
this  fearful  drama.  In  man's  deepest  consciousness, 
read  sometimes  clearly  and  sometimes  dimly,  is 
the  subject-matter  of  a  Paradise  Lost  and  a  Para- 
dise Regained,  which  the  seers  and  bards  of  human- 
ity have  struggled  to  articulate  distinctly  in  proph- 
ecy and  song.  Only  when  the  things  of  immortality 
become  mere  matters  of  tradition,  and  not  subjec- 
tive realities,  man*  conceives  this  drama  as  enacted 
in  some  far  off  and  imaginary  heavens,  and  not 
where  alone  it  can  be  found,  —  in  himself. 

This  drama  has  a  twofold  catastrophe,  for  either 
of  these  powers  may  be  victorious.  If  we  welcome 
the  powers  of  light  and  cooperate  with  them,  their 
dominion  enlarges  till  it  comprehends  our  entire 
nature.  All  evil  powers  are  driven  out,  all  corrupt 

*  Heeren's  Asia.     See  his  critique  upon  the  Kamayana. 


CONFLICT   AND    VKTORY.  185 

proclivities  cease.  The  conflict  is  over  and  the  issue 
is  peace.  Or  we  may  side  with  the  evil  forces,  and 
then  their  victory  will  be  sure.  Not  all  at  once,  for 
the  mind  still  opens  inward  towards  a  brighter 
sphere,  and  receding  voices  for  a  long  time  will  talk 
along  the  avenues.  But  a  necessity  lies  upon  every 
man  either  to  obey  the  truth  or  else  reject  it ;  for  if 
not  obeyed,  it  fills  the  soul  with  torturing  memories, 
and  gives  a  foresight  of  retribution  until  its  light  is 
is  excluded.  The  spirit  that  speaks  within  must 
either  be  obeyed  or  "  grieved  "  away.  Therefore  all 
selfish  and  sinful  indulgence,  all  worldly  living,  is  the 
coming  on  of  the  shadows  of  night.  God  and  immor- 
tality become  the  traditions,  if  not  the  fables,  of  olden 
time.  The  world  of  spirit  is  shadowy  and  phan- 
tasmic,  while  the  world  of  sense  is  solid  and  real. 
Towards  God  and  the  things  that  are  above,  the 
mind  is  darkened  and  closed.  Towards  sense  and 
things  below,  with  all  their  sorceries  and  seductions, 
the  mind  is  alive  and  open  wide.  The  evil  powers 
are  victorious,  and  the  issue  is  religious  insensibility 
and  spiritual  death.  "  They  make  a  solitude  and 
they  call  it  peace." 

The  path  of  our  regenerate  life,  therefore,  is  the 
strait  and  climbing  and  rugged  pathway  of  Chris- 
tian obedience.  When  once  our  book  of  life  has 
been  opened  to  us,  every  evil  disposition  that  stirs 
within  us  is  to  be  resisted,  mortified,  and  slain.  As 
fast  as  the  old  man  is  crucified,  the  new  man  is  put 
on.  Every  lust  that  is  denied,  is  driven  out  by  "  the 
expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection."  As  fast  as  the 

16* 


186  THE    NEW   MAN. 

kingdom  of  darkness  recedes,  the  kingdom  of  light 
comes  on.  This  is  not  the  sole  work  of  the  closet 
or  the  Sabbath  day.  In  our  daily  walk,  in  our 
minutest  affairs,  are  the  occasions  found  when  the 
temptation  without  brings  to  light  -the  evil  within, 
and  they  call  and  answer  to  each  other.  Then  the 
evil  stands  out  naked  and  undisguised,  and  we 
grapple  with  it  on  a  fair  and  open  field.  Thus  all 
the  desires  of  the  natural  man  "  come  full  circle," 
are  successively  denied  and  repressed,  and  the  cor- 
responding dispositions  of  the  spiritual  man  beam 
forth  in  the  most  external  life,  and  clothe  themselves 
in  new  and  heavenly  moralities.  Every  temptation 
resisted  is  a  defeat  of  the  powers  of  evil,  and  every 
such  defeat  makes  our  next  victory  more  certain 
and  easy.  And  when  our  most  unremembered  deeds 
are  redolent  of  spontaneous  and  angel  sympathies, 
God  reigns  in  our  most  external  as  well  as  our  most 
internal  man.  He  is  first,  and  he  is  last.  He 
reigns  in  our  central  being,  and  in  its  remotest  cir- 
cuit, and  therefore  in  all  that  interspaces  these  two. 
But  the  work  is  not  complete  so  long  as  any  combi- 
nation of  circumstances  can  stir  a  passion  within 
us  which  is  to  be  denied  and  crucified. 

This  conflict  between  the  passions  of  the  natural 
man  and  the  angel  band  of  pure  affections,  between 
self  and  God  struggling  for  supremacy  in  the  soul,  is 
such,  that  the  perturbations  are  sometimes  long  and 
fearful,  and  the  soul  seems  to  itself  to  be  driven  to 
and  fro  on  the  billows  of  an  angry  sea.  It  may  even 
be  such,  that  this  subjective  world  of  contending 


CONFLICT   AND   VICTORY.  187 

forces  may  fling  the  shadows  of  its  own  shapes  upon 
outward  things,  and  the  individual  shall  see  out  of 
him  an  image  of  the  warfare  that  rages  within. 
Luther's  temptations  were  of  this  kind,  when  the 
fiend  that  first  took  shape  and  consistence  in  his  own 
passions  seemed  to  pass  into  objectivity,  and  fling 
his  grim  shadows  upon  the  wall.  Bunyan's  temp- 
tations passed  into  this  stage,  when  the  calls  and 
responses  between  the  tempter  without  and  the  evil 
within  were  so  loud  and  strong,  that  some  one  seemed 
to  be  sending  his  voice  after  him,  and  he  would  look 
round  and  say,  Who  calls?  And  again  the  deep 
waking  voices  of  God's  spirit  were  so  distinct  and 
clear,  that  they  seemed  as  articulate  and  audible  as 
if  they  fell  on  the  outward  ear.*  So  the  strength 
that  comes  to  us  during  the  struggle  may  be  such, 
and  the  peace  of  victory  won  may  be  so  clear-shining 
and  heavenly,  that  they  shall  seem  to  fling  their 
splendors  into  the  external  world,  and  overlay  the  ap- 
pearances of  the  senses.  Thus  in  the  darkest  Geth- 
semanes  of  life  the  angel  may  appear  from  heaven 
to  strengthen  the  sufferer,  and  when  the  tempter  is 
driven  away  and  the  struggle  is  over,  the  sunshine 
that  follows  may  be  the  brightness  flung  from  the 
wings  of  seraphim.  That  is  a  shallow  philosophy, 
and  one  whose  plummet  never  sounded  the  deeps  of 
humanity,  which  ascribes  all  this  to  fantasy,  and  then 
thinks  the  mystery  explained.  For  such  are  the 
openings  of  the  internal  mind  towards  a  spirit-realm, 

*  See  Banyan's  Life,  prefixed  to  Pilgrim's  Progress. 


188  THE    NEW   MAN.     . 

that  natures  extremely  susceptible  shall  not  only  re- 
ceive its  influences,  but,  *in  moments  of  intense  men- 
tal action,  have  its  images  formed  in  their  percep- 
tions ;  and  then  the  great  conflict  on  which  hang  such 
momentous  issues,  the  conflict  of  the  good  with  the 
evil,  the  true  with  the  false,  is  shadowed  forth  ex- 
ternally, and  the  moral  battle  paints  itself  upon  the 
canvas  of  the  senses. 

Fortunately,  however,  most  men  have  not  these  ex- 
tremely, susceptible  natures,  and  corrupt  inclinations 
may  be  denied,  as  they  come  successively  into  the 
consciousness,  without  these  violent  perturbations. 
The  path  of  our  regeneration  is  open  and  plain. 
It  is  simple  self-denial,  until  there  is  no  self  to  be 
denied.  This  is  never  accomplished  without  pain- 
ful vigils  and  struggles,  and  persevering  toil,  how- 
ever smoothly  our  external  affairs  may  flow  on. 
There  are  those  of  ripe  experience,  of  high  Christian 
attainment,  of  that  heavenly-mindedness  which  is  al- 
ways serene  and  unclouded  as  the  upper  sky.  But 
all  this  did  not  come  of  itself.  Always  when  the 
internal  experience  of  such  persons  is  disclosed  to  us, 
we  find  that  they  reached  those  summits  of  peace 
through  conflicts  and  watchings,  that  sometimes 
chased  repose  from  their  pillows.  There  are  those 
with  whom  this  work  begins  with  the  first  dawn- 
ings  of  reason,  —  who,  like  Samuel,  hear  the  voice  of 
the  Lord  in  childhood,  and  follow  it  devoutly, — who 
never  suffer  inborn  corruption  to  come  forth  into 
voluntary  life,  — who  therefore  need  not  be  converted 
in  order  to  be  regenerated  and  saved ;  but  whose 


CONFLICT   AND   VICTORY.  189 

characters  grow  into  forms  of  Christian  piety  and 
grace,  as  the  palm^ree  rises  graceful  and  majestic 
amid  the  stillness  of  the  forest.  With  them  the 
struggle  is  less  severe ;  every  victory  is  easy,  and 
their  Christian  course  is  a  continuous  ovation.  Con- 
science always  obeyed  becomes  unerring  and  clear, 
sweeter  to  hear  than  a  song  at  evening,  its  voice  a 
constant  "  Well  done ! "  from  the  indwelling  Spirit  of 
God.  If  there  is  any  thing  in  the  universe  fitted  to 
awaken  emotions  of  the  morally  sublime  and  beau- 
tiful, like  this  unfolding  of  childhood  into  the  con- 
scientious young  man  or  woman,  we  do  not  know 
what  it  is,  —  childhood  leading  a  charmed  life,  walk- 
ing through  the  furnace  while  the  flames  play  innocu- 
ous around.  We  may  find  its  image  and  representa- 
tion in  nature,  but  we  can  find  nothing  half  so  lovely. 
I  have  seen  the  planet  of  evening,  when  her  disc  was 
nearly  obscure,  —  "  the  new  moon  with  the  old 
moon  in  her  arm,"  —  and  she  seemed  little  else  than 
a  dark  mass  hanging  in  the  sky.  But  she  turns 
towards  the  sun,  and  a  brighter  crescent  appears ;  it 
grows  larger  and  encroaches  upon  the  line  of  dark- 
ness, till  she  emerges  complete  in  light,  and  rides  in 
full  beauty  along  the  plains  of  heaven.  Such  is 
childhood  emerging  out  of  hereditary  corruption,  not 
through  the  spasms  and  agonies  of  repentance  and 
conversion,  but  through  growth  in  that  grace  that 
never  fails,  but  always  enlarges  till  it  comprehends 
the  whole  man,  and  he  reflects  the  Divine  light  and 
the  Divine  charms  in  complete  be'auty  and  glory. 
But  it  is  the  shame  of  our  Christian  education  and 


190  THE   NEW    MAN. 

Christian  example,  that  there  are  few  such  cases  as 
these.  The  way  of  our  regeneration  lies  through 
bitter  repentances  and  death-struggles  for  victory, 
and  perhaps  at  the  end  of  our  mortal  course  we  find 
the  victory  but  half  gained.  And  yet  we  would  not  rep- 
resent that  the  Christian  life  is  only  a  life  of  struggle. 
There  are  intervals  of  sunshine  and  peace,  when  we 
rest  upon  our  arms  and  contemplate  the  fields  we 
have  won,  and  the  affluent  dominions  we  are  yet  to 
gain.  The  region  of  eternal  rest  is  not  reached 
through  a  path  of  incessant  upward  toil.  We  go 
from  one  height  to  another,  as  hills  rise  above  hills, 
and  on  every  height  gained  we  enjoy  its  partial 
peace,  and  in  our  breathing-time  we  sing  victorious 
songs.  There  are  seasons  when  our  wrong  propen- 
sities are  quiescent,  and  we  rest  from  our  labor  until 
temptation  wakes  them  up  and  the  conflict  begins 
anew.  And  when  one  of  these  enemies  is  destroyed, 
we  have  the  peace  of  victory  till  another  comes  in 
sight,  all  the  while  rejoicing  in  our  faith  in  Him  who 
is  our  shield  and  buckler,  and  who  gives  us  at  these 
intervals  the  earnest  of  everlasting  rest. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
THE  MEDIATOR. 

"  The  few  pale  stars  had  vanished  from  the  sky  ; 
There  was  no  moon,  but  blackness  over  all 
Dense  as  the  cloak  of  death,  without  relief, 
Or  hope  of  change,  —  a  risible  despair : 
Then  the  retiring  darkness  gave  to  view 
A  lucid  sphere  enveloped  in  the  gloom ; 
Sudden,  effulgent,  glorious,  it  burst, 
As  if  a  sun  were  born  at  midnight  deep. 
Radius-like  bent  round  the  brow  of  Christ 
It  shone,  the  promised  DAI-SPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH." 

THE  theology  of  the  New  Testament  involves 
three  leading  ideas,  all  of  which  centre  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

First,  there  is  a  perfect  and  glorified  HUMAN  NA- 
TURE, exhibiting  in  its  changes  from  its  humiliation 
to  its  exaltation  all  the  possible  virtues,  graces,  and 
excellences  that  belong  to  our  human  condition. 

Secondly,  there  is  the  DIVINE  NATURE  in  its  pater- 
nal benignity,  infinite  wisdom,  and  universal  and 
unchanging  love,  contrasting  with  the  dark  and 
partial  conceptions  of  God  which  prevailed  among 
Jews  and  Gentiles. 

Thirdly,  there  is  the  UNION  of  these  two  in  Jesus 
Christ,  so  that  in  him  are  revealed  at  the  same  time 
a  perfect  humanity  and  the  all-perfect  Divinity. 


192  THE   NEW   MAN. 

All  classes  of  Christians  receive  these  three  ideas, 
though  not  111  the  same  combinations.  All  believe 
that  the  New  Testament  reveals  the  perfect  man. 
All  believe  that  it  reveals  the  perfect  God,  the  Uni- 
versal Father.  All  believe  that  in  Jesus  Christ  God 
and  humanity  were  united.  It  is  when  they  come 
to  discuss  the  mode  of  this  connection,  whether  by 
inspiration,  by  indwelling,  or  by  hypostatic  union, 
that  differences  begin  to  appear.  We  are  not  going 
to  follow  out  these  subtilties.  "  That  way  madness 
lies." 

Keeping  close  to  our  main  purpose,  however, 
and  hoping  to  draw  the  reader  along  with  us,  we 
premise  that  it  is  no  example  of  mere  human  na- 
ture, however  sublimated  and  exalted,  that  satisfies 
our  wants  as  sinful  men.  No  finite  power  and  in- 
fluence can  create  us  anew.  No  models  of  human 
virtue,  however  pure  and  perfect,  are  to  regenerate 
and  save  us.  Rather  do  they  dazzle  and  mock  us 
with  ideals  which  we  can  never  realize  ourselves. 
I  may  fix  on  them  my  earnest  and  despairing  gaze ; 
but  there  aloft  they  shine  and  shine  in  vain,  giving 
me  gleams  of  a  region  of  purity  and  peace  which  I 
cannot  climb  to,  and  which  fall  upon  my  unsunned 
and  frozen  nature  like  the  shimmer  of  moonbeams 
upon  a  mass  of  snow.  Christ  has  placed  before  me 
an  example  of  human  perfection,  and  told  me  to 
follow  in  his  steps.  And  is  that  all  ?  If  that  be  all, 
it  were  like  standing  on  the  shore  and  helping  a 
drowning  man  by  merely  shouting  to  him  to  rise 
and  walk  the  waves.  In  our  fallen,  sinful  state,  it  is 


THE    MEDIATOR.  193 

not  first  and  chiefly  an  example  that  we  want.  We 
want  God.  We  want  Divine  succor  and  influence, 
coming  within  us  with  creative  power,  not  primarily 
to  bring  us  into  conformity  with  some  model  that  is 
placed  before  us,  but  to  revive  the  Divine  image 
within  us,  so  that  by  its  own  radiation  it  shall  pro- 
duce around  us  the  halo  of  all  Christian  virtues  and 
graces. 

Whatever,  then,  may  be  the  mode  of  union  be- 
tween the  human  and  the  Divine  in  the  person  and 
history  of  Jesus  Christ,  —  and  we  shrink  from  ap- 
plying the  scalpel  of  our  metaphysics  to  the  Divine 
nature,  —  this  one  truth  stands  bold  and  prominent 
in  the  entire  history  of  the  incarnation,  that  the 
human  was  so  overlaid,  controlled,  and  possessed  by 
the  Divine,  that  the  Saviour  is  without  reserve  "  God 
with  us."  The  Divine  inlays  all  his  words  and  ac- 
tions, so  that  they  are  the  undoubted  expositions  of 
the  Eternal  Wisdom  and  Love.  The  New  Testa- 
ment writers  are  careful  to  inform  us  that  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  had  no  human  father,  but  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  itself  descended  into  this  world  and  took  its 
normal  clothing  of  flesh  and  blood  and  its  expres- 
sion in  the  human  form.  They  put  this  fact  in  the 
foreground  of  the  Christian  theology,  for  by  this 
fact  they  make  the  Author  of  Christianity  not  an 
inspired  prophet,  but  a  Divine  Man.  The  prophet 
is  inspired  to  utter  his  message,  and  that  done  he  ia 
like  other  men.  Christ  was  not  inspired  after  birth, 
but  the  effluence  of  the  Divine  nature  formed  the  in- 
most principle  of  his  natural  being,  so  that  his  most 

17 


194  THE    NEW    MAN. 

common  words  and  works  had  their  ground  in  the 
ingenerating  Divinity.  The  natural  life  of  Christ 
became  hence  the  expression  of  God,  and  the  influ- 
ence proceeding  from  him  the  effusion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  • 

St.  John  asserts  the  same  truth  in  describing  the 
Divine  Word  made  flesh,  that  is,  brought  down  into 
the  conditions  of  mortal  existence  and  clothed  in  hu- 
man form.  He  is  asserting  the  ground  of  Christ's 
plenary  authority  and  wisdom,  and  this  he  does  by 
describing  these  fleshly  surroundings  as  enfolding  the 
Divine  wisdom,  life  within  life,  —  the  infinite  become 
visible  in  the  finite,  not  by  being  superinduced  upon 
Christ  by  special  gift,  but  by  forming  the  inmost  prin- 
ciple of  his  natural  being.  Nothing  less  than  this 
satisfies  the  record  of  the  supernatural  conception  by 
Matthew,  or  of  the  Divine  incarnation  by  John.  In- 
deed, these  two  chapters  aside,  nothing  short  of  the 
fact  which  they  describe  explains  that  phenomenal 
Divine  life  which  the  whole  history  of  Jesus  brings  to 
view.  Both  his  words  and  his  works  are  quite  in- 
explicable without  it.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father,  and  how  sayest  thou  then,  Show  us 
the  Father  ?  "  "  The  words  which  I  speak  unto  you 
I  speak  not  of  myself,  but  the  Father  that  dwelleth 
in  me,  he  doeth  the  works."  The  finite  human  na- 
ture received  from  Mary  was  obsequious  to  the  in- 
most Divinity,  was  its  living  transparency  which 
served  to  symbolize  and  copy  it  out. 

Without  attempting,  therefore,  any  rigid  or  exact 
analysis,  in  which  we  might  perhaps  lose  the  com- 


THE   MEDIATOR.  195 

pany  of  the  reader,  we  trust  that  he  will  approach 
with  us  in  reverent  mood  the  sublime  and  central 
truth  to  which  we  are  coming.  We  lay  off  all  the 
theories  of  the  schoolmen  pertaining  to  the  mode 
of  union  between  God  and  Christ.  We  forget  all 
the  disputes  of  the  sects  upon  this  question.  We 
recognize  the  fact  that  such  a  union,  though  it  may 
involve  mysteries,  involves  no  contradictions.  We 
do  not  stop  at  what  is  mortal  and  finite  in  the  fact 
of  the  Divine  incarnation ;  we  do  not  even  see  the 
finite,  but  look  through  it  as  we  look  through  glass 
to  see  the  sun ;  and  then  the  Divine  nature  unveils 
itself  to  our  longing  vision,  and  out  of  Jesus  Christ 
comes  the  unclouded  blaze  of  the  Godhead !  * 

The  practical  bearing  of  this  truth  on  the  state  of 
the  world  and  the  regeneration  of  man  soon  becomes 
obvious.  It  is  obvious  in  many  respects,  but  prin- 
cipally from  the  fact  of  A  NEW  DISPENSATION  OF  THE 
SPIRIT  THROUGH  THE  MEDIATOR.  Taking  the  fact 

*  We  are  confident  that  we  have  here  stated  substantially  the  doc- 
trine, not  only  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  but  of  the  ante-Nicene 
fathers  and  the  Nicene  Council  itself,  concerning  the  nature  of  Christ 
The  modern  doctrine  of  a  distinction  of  persons  in  the  Godhead  did 
not  enter  at  all  into  the  Arian  controversy.  That  was  the  invention  of 
a  later  age.  The  question  between  Arius  and  his  opposers  was, 
whether  Christ  is  begotten  out  of  God,  and  therefore  o/ioovcrios. 
consubstantial  with  the  Father,  or  whether  he  was  formed  out  of  noth- 
ing by  the  creative  power  of  God.  Arius  affirmed  the  latter  doctrine. 
His  opposers  the  former.  The  Nicene  Council  decided  against  Arius, 
and  (as  we  think)  in  accordance  with  the  New  Testament  writers,  es- 
pecially Matthew,  Luke,  and  John,  in  their  jntroductory  chapters.  See 
Murdock's  Mosheim,  Vol.  I.  pp.  287  -  290.  Also  Stuart's  article  on 
Sabellianism  in  the  Biblical  Repository. 


196  THE    NEW    MAN. 

which  three  of  the  Evangelists  have  placed  so  conspic- 
uously in  the  foreground  of  their  history,  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  begotten  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  thus 
became  the  inmost  principle  of  his  natural  being,  it 
would  hence  result  that  the  influence  emanating 
from  him  is  the  Holy  Spirit  itself.  And  this  truth 
shines  with  great  fulness  through  all  the  narrative 
that  follows.  It  was  conspicuous  at  his  baptism. 
The  Evangelist  evidently  does  not  mean  to  say  that 
the  natural  heavens  were  opened,  and  that  the  sym- 
bolic dove  descended  out  of  them.  Rather  does  he 
mean  that  the  heavens  opened  from  within  ;  their 
light  streaming  outward  and  investing  the  person  of 
the  Son  of  God  with  their  encircling  glory,  in  which 
glory  were  seen  to  play  the  wings  of  the  holy  dove, 
emblem  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which,  from  being  the 
inmost  principle  of  his  nature,  was  becoming  also 
its  outermost  manifestation,  its  Last  as  well  as  First. 
In  that  memorable  discourse  of  Jesus  with  his 
disciples  at  the  table  of  the  last  supper,  he  promises 
to  send  them  the  Comforter,  "  whom,"  he  adds, 
"  the  world  cannot  receive,  because  it  seeth  him  not, 
neither  knoweth  him.  But  ye  know  him ;  for  HE 
DWELLETH  WITH  YOU,  and  shall  be  in  you."  The 
Comforter  is  synonymous  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
dwelt  with  the  disciples  in  the  person  of  the  Son  of 
God,  but  not  yet  had  it  penetrated  the  darkness  of 
their  minds.  Not  yet  had  the  world  recognized  its 
presence,  immersed  in  its  superstitions  and  idolatries. 
But  this  Holy  Spirit  was  to  come  to  them  with 
other  demonstrations  than  those  made  through  its 


THE    MEDIATOR.  197 

fleshly  coverings.  One  of  the  grand  results  which 
the  death  of  Christ  was  to  accomplish,  was  to  bring 
the  Holy  Ghost  by  taking  away  the  hiding  of  its 
power.  The  interposition  of  a  mortal  body  between 
the  spiritual  Christ  and  his  followers,  was  as  a  cloud 
that  concealed  the  sun  and  intercepted  its  rays. 
The  Comforter  was  with  them,  but  not  in  them. 
He  had  unfolded  to  them  an  infinite  system  of  truth, 
but  its  doctrines  lay  cold  and  dead  in  their  memo- 
ries. The  seed  had  been  deposited  in  the  soil,  but 
not  yet  had  come  the  warm  sunshine  and  the  spring 
gales. 

The  import  of  our  Saviour's  language  afterwards 
to  his  disciples  hence  becomes  apparent.  "  It  is  ex- 
pedient for  you  that  I  go  away ;  for  if  I  go  not  away, 
the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I  depart, 
I  will  send  him  unto  you."*  As  if  he  had  said, 
"  Though  I  am  with  you  in  this  mortal  body,  yet  I 
am  separated  from  you.  I  withdraw  from  your 
sight,  that  I  may  get  nearer  to  your  spirit.  I  can 
come  to  you  out  of  the  immortal  state,  and  out  of 
my  glorified  body,  as  I  cannot  come  to  you  out  of 
these  environments  of  mortality."  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  given  before  Jesus  was 
glorified.^  Out  of  the  material  body  and  through 
the  clogs  of  the  senses,  the  influences  that  came 
from  Jesus  did  not  reach  the  inmost  hearts  of  his 
followers ;  but  these  clogs  being  removed,  and  com- 
ing to  his  disciples  from  the  spiritual  side,  those  in- 


*  John  xri.  7.  t  John  vii.  39. 

17* 


198  _  THE    NEW    MAN. 

fluences  might  be  felt  with  new  demonstrations  of 
power.  Such  was  the  promise  made  by  Christ  to  his 
disciples,  —  the  promise  of  a  new  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit: — "  I  go  away  that  I  may  come  again." 

How  wonderful  was  the  fulfilment !  At  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Saviour  with  his  disciples,  after  his 
death  and  resurrection,  the  Evangelist  says,  "  he 
breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto  them,  Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost."  But  the  fulfilment  is  witnessed  in 
its  most  memorable  results  about  forty  days  after  his 
crucifixion,  namely,  at  the  Feast  of  Pentecost.  The 
disciples  had  assembled  with  vague  anticipations 
of  the  promised  gift.  At  length  the  influence  came. 
Their  souls  are  suddenly  swept  by  the  breezes  of 
God's  spirit,  which  elevated  all  their  powers  of  con- 
ception, emotion,  and  utterance.  The  truths  that 
lay  cold  in  their  memories  now  glow  like  living 
coals,  reminding  them  of  the  promise  that  the  Com- 
forter should  "  bring  all  things  to  their  remem- 
brance." Those  timid  men,  who  forsook  their  Master 
at  the  cross,  now  confront  danger  and  death  with 
loosened  tongues,  and  with  tidings  of  a  world's  sal- 
vation. But  the  gift  is  not  to  the  disciples  alone ; 
it  is  the  inheritance  of  the  rising  Church,  and  its 
first  day's  evidence  is  the  conversion  of  three  thou- 
sand souls.  "  This  Jesus,"  exclaims  Peter  in  the 
midst  of  this  triumphal  scene,  "  hath  God  raised  up, 
whereof  we  are  all  witnesses ;  and  having  received 
of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he 
hath  si  led  forth  this,  which  ye  now  see  and  hear." 

May  we  not  pause  here  a  moment,  and  contemplate 


THE   MEDIATOR.  199 

the  summit  of  Calvary  as  a  scene  of  triumph !  The 
enemies  of  the  Saviour  thought  they  were  taking 
the  most  potent  means  to  cover  him  with  defeat 
and  ruin.  They  were  the  very  means  he  had  taken 
into  his  plan  of  success  and  victory.  They  thought 
lhat,  by  killing  the  body  and  putting  it  out  of  sight, 
this  new  religion  would  be  swept  from  the  earth. 
He  knew  that,  when  free  of  the  body,  he  should 
have  access  to  the  minds  of  his  followers  by  means 
more  efficacious  than  those  of  language.  They 
thought  that,  when  the  body  was  bruised  in  pieces, 
all  was  at  an  end.  He  knew  that  this  was  tearing 
away  the  chief  hindrance  of  his  power.  They 
thought  that,  by  killing  the  body,  they  put  Christ 
out  of  the  way.  He  knew  that  this  would  bring 
him  more  completely  into  the  midst  of  his  disciples, 
yea,  into  the  heart  of  humanity,  as  that  power  which 
should  shake  down  old  dynasties  and  change  the 
face  of  the  world. 

We  come  now  to  a  clear  apprehension  of  the 
meaning  of  Paul,  in  that  large  class  of  passages  in 
which  he  ascribes  so  much  efficacy  to  the  influence 
of  the  living  Christ.  It  is  a  most  remarkable  fact, 
that,  while  the  modern  Church  ascribes  the  chief  effi- 
cacy in  man's  redemption  to  the  death  of  Christ, 
Paul  ascribes  it  to  his  LIFE  AND  RESURRECTION.  "  If 
Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain ;  ye  are 
yet  in  your  sins"  His  sufferings  and  death  are  of 
no  avail  to  cancel  your  sins,  except  as  a  means  of 
exaltation  to  that  sphere,  whence  his  spirit  operates 
with  new  power  in  cleansing  your  sins  away.  Again : 


200  THE    NEW    MAN. 

"  If,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  we  were  reconciled 
to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son,  much  more,  being 
reconciled,  WE  SHALL  BE  SAVED  BY  HIS  LIFE."*  And 
yet  again  he  speaks  of  "  Christ  that  died " ;  but 
checking  himself,  "  yea,  rather,  that  is  RISEN  AGAIN, 
and  who  maketh  intercession  for  us."  f  We  may 
well  stand  with  dissolving  hearts  in  view  of  the 
spectacle  on  Calvary.  But  our  repentance  were  "  a 
most  unprevailing  woe,"  were  it  not  that,  from  the 
heavens  to  which  Christ  is  exalted,  the  life  of  God 
out  of  his  glorified  humanity  passes  daily  into  our 
hearts  to  create  them  anew.  The  Apostle  thus 
makes  the  resurrection  of  Christ  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  gospel  system :  "  If  thou  shalt  con- 
fess with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  believe  in 
thy  heart  that  God  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou 
shalt  be  saved.";):  The  Apostle  most  clearly  does 
not  mean,  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  the  reanima- 
tion  of  the  natural  body.  He  means  that  whole 
process  through  which  he  ascended  out  of  mortality 
into  the  glorified  state.  He  means  by  it  the  putting 
off  of  these  limitations  of  flesh  and  sense,  and  the 
putting  on  of  that  spiritual  form  in  which  he  came 
anew  to  his  disciples,  and  "  shed  forth "  the  Holy 
Ghost  into  his  rising  Church  and  into  the  hearts  of 
all  his  followers.  And  when  he  describes  the  Christ 
of  consciousness,  the  Christ  that  is  "  formed  within 
us,"  we  do  not  understand  him  to  be  using  language 
idly  and  vaguely.  Rather  does  he  describe  that  ira- 

*  Bom.  v.  10.  t  Ibid.  viii.  34.  t  Ibid,  x.  9. 


THE    MEDIATOR.  201 

age  of  Christ  formed  in  the  Christian  heart  by  those 
rays  of  Divine  light  that  fall  into  it  out  of  the  glori- 
fied nature  of  the  great  Redeemer. 

We  would  not  by  any  means  deny  the  influences 
that  come  to  us  from  the  life  of  Christ  in  the  flesh, 
or  his  death  on  Calvary,  considered  as  an  example 
of  sublime  virtue  and  majestic  patience.  Doubtless 
we  are  guided  by  looking  at  that  example.  Doubt- 
less, by  a  contemplation  of  that  great  sacrifice,  that 
all-consecrating  devotion  of  the  outward  and  the  finite 
to  the  God  within,  we  get  the  lesson  of  self-conse- 
cration, and  learn  how  we  ought  to  live.  Doubtless, 
the  sweet,  forgiving  spirit,  which  at  the  crucifixion 
beamed  out  through  the  convulsions  of  nature,  like 
sunbeams  struggling  through  the  cloud  and  fringing 
the  wings  of  the  storm,  has  found  its  way  into 
many  hearts  in  hours  of  tender  communion.  But 
if  Christ  had  not  been  raised,  we  had  been  "yet  in 
our  sins."  His  death  is  efficacious  as  the  rending 
away  of  that  veil  which  hung  between  him  and  the 
hearts  of  men,  as  breaking  down  the  chief  obstacle 
in  thve  way  of  pouring  his  life  in  warm,  full  tides 
into  the  bosom  of  humanity!  Paul,  had  he  seen 
Christ  in  the  flesh  only,  would  perhaps  have  joined 
hands  with  his  murderers.  But  when  he  saw  him 
amid  the  revealing  glories  of  another  sphere,  he  was 
smitten  to  the  earth,  and  cried,  "  Lord,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do  ?  "  And  though  no  such  vis- 
ion was  given  to  all  the  disciples,  yet  not  less 
was  his  Divine  Person  close  to  them,  insphering 
them  in  its  own  life  and  light,  whose  influence, 


202  THE    NEW    MAN. 

breathing  through  the  soul,  was  everywhere  felt  as 
the  gales  of  this  spring-time  of  Christianity. 

The  history  of  the  first  triumphs  of  the  gospel 
is  entirely  inexplicable  on  any  ordinary  principles, 
and  might  well  baffle  a  profounder  man  than  Mr. 
Gibbon.  Put  yourself  in  the  presence  of  these  early 
preachers,  and  witness  the  results!  Some  reasoners 
have  attempted  to  account  for  the  rapid  spread  of 
Christianity  in  those  times,  by  the  power  which  the 
first  disciples  had  of  working  miracles,  —  such  as 
healing  the  sick,  raising  the  dead,  and  the  like.  Let 
any  such  reasoner  read  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  in 
reference  to  this  matter,  and  he  will  find  the  facts 
against  him.  A  few  plain  men,  with  their  simple 
message,  begin  to  speak  to  men  more  rude  than 
themselves,  immersed  in  the  night  of  paganism. 
Almost  at  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  new  emo- 
tions rush  through  their  hearts,  and  new  conceptions 
rise  in  their  minds,  and  go  forth  into  spontaneous 
utterance,  as  from  tongues  that  are  tipped  with  fire.* 
The  Holy  Ghost  "  fell  on  them  that  heard  the  word," 
so  that  these  preachers  were  themselves  "astonished" 
at  that  hidden  power  in  whose  motions  the  wills 
of  men  were  swayed  like  reeds  that  bend  before  the 
wind.  It  was  obvious  throughout,  that  a  sphere  of 
Divine  Life  had  come  nearer  to  the  earth,  and  through 
Christianity  was  touching  the  human  will ;  and  when 
the  veil  of  sense  was  rolled  away,  as  it  sometimes 
was,  and  these  men  were  permitted  to  have  gleams 

*  See  Acts  x.  44-47. 


THE   MEDIATOH.  203 

of  the  new  agencies  that  were  moving  upon  human 
nature,  they  saw  the  glorified  form  of  the  risen 
Christ,  out  of  which  came  shafts  of  Divine  fire. 
Such  was  the  introversion  of  the  dying  Stephen,  of 
the  persecuting  Saul,  and  of  the  prophet  of  Patmos, 
into  that  sphere  whose  radiances  were  piercing  the 
consciousness  of  men  and  infusing  unwonted  ener- 
gies. The  miraculous  works  which  attended  the 
first  spread  of  Christianity  were  not  so  much  causes 
as  effects,  being  demonstrations  into  the  sphere  of 
sense  and  matter  of  a  power  that  was  shaking  the 
inner  sphere  of  thought  and  will,  and  turning  its 
ancient  foundations  out  of  course. 

We  regard  this  new  spiritual  influence  as  the 
peculiar  inheritance  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  was 
not  the  first  disciples  alone  who  were  brought  into 
this  peculiar  relation  to  the  risen  Lord.  "  The  prom- 
ise is  unto  you  and  your  children,  and  to  all  that 
are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call." '  That  the  promise  made  by  Jesus  to 
be  with  his  people  "  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world,"  is  of  the  same  import  as  the  promise  made 
to  the  twelve  to  corne  to  them  again  as  the  Com- 
forter, is,  we  think,  quite  evident,  both  from  the  terms 
of  the  promise,  and  from  its  fulfilment  in  the  course 
of  Christian  history.  It  is  this  new  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  which  makes  Christianity  the  sov- 
ereign energy  in  renovating  society,  and  changing 
the  condition  of  mankind.  Other  forms  of  faith 

•  Acts  ii.  39. 


204  THE   NEW   MAN. 

have  embodied  important  moral  truths,  but  for  want 
of  this  vitalizing  influence  they  all  wane  to  their 
extinction.  Jesus  Christ  was  announced  as  that 
being  who  should  not  baptize  with  water,  —  a  cleans- 
ing merely  of  the  outward  life,  —  but  who  should 

"  BAPTIZE  WITH  THE   HOLY   GHOST    AND    WITH    FIRE." 

Within  the  circle  of  Christendom,  as  in  a  luminous 
centre,  is  the  risen  and  personal  Christ,  out  of  whose 
exalted  nature  comes,  as  out  of  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead,  a  life  made  diffusive  through  the  hearts 
of  men.  This  is  the  reason  why  within  this  circle 
come  ever  new  undulations  of  energy,  breaking  into 
the  belt  of  darkness  that  surrounds  it.  Hence  every 
new  season  of  refreshing  has  been  a  new  coming  of 
Christ,  and  every  period  of  wide-spread  renovation 
has  been  with  a  new  consciousness  of  the  personal 
presence  of,  and  of  personal  relations  to,  the  Divine 
Redeemer.  The  history  of  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion, and  more  especially  of  the  Methodist  renova- 
tion of  the  last  century,  will  verify  our  statement. 
And  it  is  quite  as  remarkable,  that  no  sect  or  body 
of  men  that  has  received  Christianity  only  as  an 
abstract  system  of  faith  and  morals,  and  its  Founder 
only  as  an  historical  person,  leaving  out  the  living 
Christ  as  the  ever-present  medium  of  the  Divine 
energy,  has  ever  won  for  itself  a  place  in  history,  as 
one  of  the  great  motive  forces  of  human  progress. 
Such  sects  have  only  a  feeble  and  transitory  exist- 
ence. They  fall  into  dead  works,  collapse  and  die. 
They  are  the  Ebionites  of  ecclesiastical  annals. 
The  bearing  of  this  theme  on  individual  regen- 


THE    MEDIATOR.  205 

eration  and  progress  is  of  transcendent  importance. 
We  make  our  appeal  to  the  experience  of  the  reader. 
When  you  have  sought  communion  with  God  with- 
out a  Mediator,  have  you  not  found  your  idea  of 
God  dissipated  and  fading  off  into  Pantheism,  till 
God  becomes  an  evanescent  spirit,  that  "  rolls  through 
all  things,"  but  from  whose  living  Person  comes  no 
Divine  energy  that  wakes  up  and  concentrates  all 
your  faculties,  and  whose  conscious  presence  is  your 
comfort  and  joy  ?  And  has  not  the  religious  senti- 
ment, from  being  the  motive  power  to  great  sacrifices 
and  achievements,  sunk  away  towards  an  aimless 
and  dreamy  sentimentalism,  or  perhaps  what  is  worse, 
a  worldly  insensibility  and  unbelief.  Then  Christ 
is  an  historical  character,  not  the  ever-present  Medi- 
ator, in  whom  God  is  seen  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself.  Away  back  in  the  past  he  appears, 
as  a  beautiful  pattern  of  excellence ;  ygu  reach  after 
it,  but  you  never  get  nearer  to  it ;  and  when  you  try 
to  forsake  your  sins  and  escape  from  spiritual  death, 
you  seem  to  make  no  progress,  like  a  man  escaping 
from  a  monster  in  a  dream.  You  find  that  the  or- 
dinances of  religion  are  soon  without  spirit  and 
meaning.  Why  join  a  Church  which  has  no  living 
head  except  in  a  figure  of  speech  ?  Why  keep  cele- 
brating the  death  of  one  who  has  been  dead  two 
thousand  years  ?  Restore  the  doctrine  of  the  One 
Divine  Mediator  to  the  Church  and  to  your  own 
soul,  and  see  the  change !  Not  a  Mediator  who 
comes  in  between  you  and  God  to  divert  his  pun- 
ishments, but  out  of  whom  comes  God's  all-renew- 

18 


206  THE    NEW    MAN. 

ing  spirit  in  unceasing  waves  of  light  and  love,  — 
the  Mediator  of  the  Church  in  the  day  of  her  bridal 
glories.  Then  you  have  the  "  Christ  that  died,  — 
yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again,"  —  the  Saviour  who 
appeared  to  St.  John,  and  whose  countenance  is  as 
the  sun  shining  in  his  strength,  who  is  present  in 
his  ordinances  in  a  higher  sense  than  the  Papist 
dreams  of,  and  who  comes  anew  into  your  soul  to 
make  his  truth  alive  and  glowing. 

There  are,  we  think,  pretty  clear  indications  that 
the  present  is  a  period  that  lies  on  the  eve  of  one 
of  those  great  renewals  of  the  Church  and  of  society 
which  are  called  eras.  Two  things  there  are  which 
raise  the  expectation  that  another  wave  out  of  the 
eternal  energy  is  circling  towards  us,  and  even  break- 
ing upon  the  shores  of  time. 

First,  there  is  the  indisputable  fact  that  the  old 
forms  of  belief  and  modes  of  operation  have  done 
about  all  they  can  do  in  renewing  society.  Misery 
and  sin  lie  around  the  Church  in  solid  masses,  yea, 
within  its  inclosures ;  and  the  conning  of  its  litanies, 
and  the  recital  of  its  creeds,  have  no  more  effect 
in  penetrating  these  masses,  than  have  moonbeams 
in  melting  the  rock.  What  have  the  great  world's 
affairs  to  do  with  the  spells  that  are  muttered  in 
churches  ?  And  yet  the  great  world's  affairs  are 
going  wrong.  Doctrines  clung  to  with  the  most 
tenacity  have  no  intelligible  reference  to  practice, 
and  the  practice  is  much  the  same  whether  the  doc- 
trines are  assented  to  or  not.  Reformers  go  forth 
in  their  own  name,  but  their  fierce  maledictions 


THE   MEDIATOR.  207 

return  back  upon  them,  verifying  anew  the  princi- 
ple, that  he  cannot  cast  out  demons  who  is  pos- 
sessed of  one  himself.  At  the  same  time,  —  and 
this  is  a  second  and  most  auspicious  sign,  —  there 
is  among  men  of  earnest  and  reverent  moods  a 
pause  and  an  expectation,  as  if  they  heard  a  di- 
vine voice  just  becoming  articulate  and  audible, — 
coming,  not  out  of  the  old  creeds,  but  out  of  the 
Divine  Word  and  out  of  the  most  interior  conscious- 
ness of  men,  and  prophesying  of  the  things  that  are 
yet  to  be.  They  would  say,  and  they  do  say,  that 
our  traditionary  and  tangled  theologies  do  not  give 
to  them  the  living  Christ,  —  the  Christ  that  came 
to  John  in  Patmos,  or  that  broke  upon  Paul  and 
arrested  him  with  overwhelming  glories.  Though 
his  death  is  celebrated  on  sacrament  days,  they  yet 
feel  that  Christ  is  not  dead !  On  the  other  hand,  a 
new  Christology  is  being  born  out  of  the  warm  love 
of  pious  hearts,  —  as  if  the  same  Comforter  were 
coming  again  and  drawing  all  to  himself.  "  What 
power  divine  diffuseth  far  this  tenderness  of  mind  ?  " 
Whence  this  growing  consciousness  of  the  Saviour's 
personal  presence  as  the  luminous  centre  of  his 
Church,  and  the  living  power  in  the  heart  of  the  dis- 
ciple, unless  it  be  a  new  fulfilment  of  the  promise, 
"  I  go  away  that  I  may  come  again." 

Meanwhile,  let  the  disciple  who  seeks  the  renewal 
of  himself  learn  his  relations  to  the  personal  and 
living  Saviour,  —  not  merely  the  Christ  of  history, 
who  "set  an  example"  to  men  two  thousand  years 
ago,  but  the  Mediator  of  the  ever-present  hour,  out 


208  THE   NEW   MAN. 

of  whose  glorified  humanity  comes  that  Divine  suf- 
fusion whose  baptism  is  unto  life  eternal.  And 
when  he  hears  a  gentle  voice,  that  calls  him  in  ac- 
cents more  deeply  moving  than  he  is  wont  to  hear, 
let  him  "turn  and  look,"  and  he  will  behold  one 
"  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

GETHSEMANE. 

"  To  pat  on  clouds  instead  of  light, 

And  cloath  the  morning-starre  with  dust, 
Was  a  translation  of  such  height, 
Ac,  but  in  thee,  wag  ne'er  exprest. 

"  Ah,  my  dear  Lord !  what  couldst  thou  spye 

In  this  impure  rebellious  clay, 
That  made  thee  thus  resolve  to  dye 
For  those  that  kill  thee  every  day  ? 

"  0,  what  strange  wonders  could  thee  move 

To  slight  thy  precious  bloud  and  breath  ? 
Sure  it  wag  Love,  my  Lord  ;  for  Lore 
IB  only  stronger  far  than  death." 

VACOHAK. 

IT  will  doubtless  occur  to  the  reader,  that  the 
foregoing  argument  is  not  complete.  It  will  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  Saviour  was  tempted  in  all 
respects  as  we  are,  and  if  temptation  can  arise  only 
from  indwelling  evil,  how  could  it  occur  to  him  who 
was  the  impersonation  of  Unsullied  Purity  ? 

We  recur  to  the  distinction,  already,  we  trust, 
made  sufficiently  broad  and  clear,  between  sin  and 
innate  jrroclivilies  to  sin.  For  the  first  we  are  guilty, 
—  for  the  last,  never,  till  they  have  passed  into  vol- 
untary action.  Those  who  ignore  this  distinction, 
and  make  "  sin  a  nature,"  fixing  moral  guilt  upon 

18* 


210  THE    NEW    MAN. 

innate  proclivities,  may  well  bring  their  speculations 
to  a  pause  in  view  of  the  temptations  of  the  desert 
and  Gethsemane.  In  that  presence  we  file  our  de- 
nial of  a  theology,  which  not  only  contradicts  the 
moral  sentiment  of  mankind,  but  in  its  last  logical 
sequence  would  bring  an  imputation  upon  the  Divine 
Sufferer  himself.  There  can  be  no  temptation,  with- 
out inhering  proclivities  to  wrong.  If  they  are  sin, 
what  mean  the  temptations  of  the  Son  of  Man  ? 

They  are  not  sin.  But  we  go  further  than  this. 
There  may  be  a  case,  where  to  be  tempted  implies 
not  only  the  absence  of  sin,  but  the  highest  good- 
ness and  mercy ;  for  it  may  be  a  means  of  securing 
the  weak  and  the  fallen  from  moral  ruin. 

Suppose  a  fire  to  occur  at  midnight,  when  some 
helpless  family  wakes  up  and  finds  itself  surrounded 
with  crackling  timbers.  Kind  neighbors  assemble. 
They  beckon  to  the  sufferers  to  come  forth.  They 
speak  words  of  encouragement  and  sympathy.  But 
what  does  all  this  avail  ?  for  the  distracted  parents 
have  retreated  with  their  little  ones  to  the  last  spot 
which  is  unconsumed,  and  while  the  fire  begins  to 
eat  upon  their  flesh,  they  send  forth  in  vain  their 
cries  for  deliverance.  At  that  moment  the  crowd, 
whose  terrified  faces  reflect  the  glare  that  is  flung 
over  them,  part  asunder,  and  some  being,  in  the  calm 
strength  of  mercy,  walks  through  the  blaze,  and, 
while  the  flames  like  the  tongues  of  demons  are 
darting  around  him,  leads  forth  the  family  unharmed 
from  their  falling  habitation.  Which  was  the  good 
man,  he  who  stood  aloof  with  kind  words  and  wish- 


GETHSEMANE.  211 

es,  or  he  who  came  into  the  actual  condition  of  the 
sufferers,  that  he  might  be  their  saviour  and  deliv- 
erer ?  Doubtless  the  latter. 

An  angel  might  have  descended  from  heaven  and 
proclaimed  the  gospel  message  from  the  tops  of  the 
mountains,  and  then  returned  and  beckoned  us  after 
him  to  the  skies.  We  should  have  gazed  after  him 
into  heaven,  and  mused  awhile  upon  the  beautiful 
vision,  which  would  have  had  no  more  effect  in  accom- 
plishing our  deliverance,  than  a  remembered  dream. 
We  are  not  angels,  and  how  could  we  follow  him  in 
his  flight?  This  natural  man  we  dwell  in  had  be- 
come inflamed  with  every  desire  and  passion  that 
could  destroy  the  soul.  Then  Jesus  Christ  assumed 
this  very  nature,  with  all  its  cumulative  evil,  —  came 
down  into  our  fleshly  habitation  and  dwelt  in  it,  that 
he  might  deliver  us  out  of  it  unharmed.  He  took 
on  him  the  seed  of  Abraham,  that  he  might  feel  all 
the  temptations  which  we  do,  and  conquer  them,  — 
take  up  all  our  experience  into  his,  and  place  upon 
himself  all  the  burdens  of  our  humanity.  "  He 
placed  his  shoulder  beneath  the  rushing  ruin,  that 
he  might  lift  it  up  into  its  eternal  rest." 

And  how  does  Christ  deliver  us  by  thus  assuming 
our  nature  and  being  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities  ?  In  two  ways. 

Here  first  comes  in  all  the  efficacy  which  we  as- 
cribe to  the  example  of  the  Saviour.  It  were  no 
example  to  us,  no  revelation  of  human  perfection, 
unless  it  exhibited  to  us  human  nature  under  temp- 
tation and  suffering,  which  have  so  large  a  place  in 


212  THE    NEW    MAN. 

our  earthly  probation.  We  want  a  pure  and  perfect 
ideal,  shining  aloft  like  a  guiding  star,  that  we 
may  know  in  what  direction  we  are  to  go.  We 
might  strive  ever  so  much  after  perfection,  but  we 
should  strive  blindly,  unless  the  lost  ideal  were  re- 
stored to  us.  We  want  not  only  strength  to  walk 
firm,  but  light  to  show  the  way ;  and  hence  we 
look  to  Christ  that  we  may  "  follow  him  in  the  re- 
generation." By  assuming  our  nature,  he  became 
conscious  of  all  the  propensities  to  wrong  that  assail 
us,  and  by  resisting  these  in  his  own  person  till  they 
were  slain  and  banished,  his  nature  was  glorified 
till  all  its  powers  were  the  perfect  media  of  the  in- 
dwelling Divinity.  This  is  a  heaven-drawn  picture 
of  our  regeneration.  We  resist  the  lower,  or  rather 
the  outward  nature,  with  its  hereditary  corruptions, 
till  those  corruptions  cease  to  be,  and  then  the  out- 
ward man,  instead  of  being  opposed  to  the  inward, 
becomes  the  clear  medium  through  which  its  pure 
energies  are  manifested  and  poured  abroad. 

The  same  conflict  was  in  him  that  there  is  in  us, — 
and  when  the  conflict  ceased  he  could  say,  "  I  and 
my  Father  are  one  ";  "  Now  is  the  Son  of  Man  glo- 
rified, and  God  is  glorified  in  him  "  ;  —  for  then  his 
humanity  transmitted  only  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
was  the  unimpeded  forth-going  of  the  Godhead. 
So  in  his  follower  when  regenerated,  —  the  whole 
outward  man  mirrors  forth  unclouded  the  graces  of 
the  inhabiting  angel. 

Again,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  these  scenes 
of  temptation  and  suffering  prepared  him  for  the 
grand  work  of  Mediation  which  we  have  already 


GETHSEMANE.  213 

described.  The  influence  which  comes  to  us  now 
out  of  his  glorified  nature,  is  adapted  tenderly  and 
effectively  to  our  various  needs,  because  he  has 
risen  out  of  this  same  condition,  and  can  hold  com- 
munion with  us  in  every  stage  of  our  progress.  He 
was  not  a  man,  but  The  Man.  His  is  the  all-com- 
prehensive humanity.  What  but  sin  can  come  into 
our  experience,  which  his  experience  has  not  em- 
braced and  taken  up  ?  Infancy  with  all  its  infolded 
germs,  and  manhood  with  all  its  conscious  procliv- 
ities, are  here  included. 

Out  of  a  humanity,  therefore,  full-orbed  and  en- 
tire, the  Comforter  now  comes  to  man.  And  all 
the  Bethlehems,  the  deserts,  the  Gethsemanes,  and 
the  Calvarys  of  human  life,  are  spanned  by  its 
warmth  and  effulgence.  All  conditions,  from  birth 
to  death,  have  the  Divine  aid  diversified  and  meted 
out  to  them.  All  experiences,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest,  have  the  Divine  strength  brought  home  to 
them  in  its  tender  and  infinite  adaptations.  In  that 
he  hath  "  suffered,  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  suc- 
cor them  that  are  tempted";  and  hence  the  omni- 
presence of  a  Saviour's  love,  th&t  finds  us  from  the 
first  inspiration  of  our  infant  breath  to  its  last  ex- 
piration in  the  gasp  of  dissolution.  If  God  were 
to  approach  us  in  his  unveiled  and  awful  essence, 
we  should  perish  in  the  blinding  and  consuming 
splendors.  But  coming  to  us  out  of  the  Glorified 
Sufferer,  we  receive  of  his  fulness,  grace  for  his 
grace,  virtue  answering  to  his  virtue,  till  the  sweet 
image  of  the  Crucified  has  copied  itself  into  our 
lowly  and  obedient  souls. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  ATONEMENT. 

"  And  lyke  as  he  made  the  Jewes  and  Gentiles  at  one  betwene  themselves,  euen  so 
he  made  them  both  at  one  with  God,  that  there  should  be  nothing  to  breake  the 
Atonement,  but  that  the  thinges  in  heauen  and  the  thynges  hi  earth  shoulde  be 
ioyned  together  as  it  were  into  one  body."  —  U»At.  EPH.  c.  2. 

WE  have  partly  anticipated  this  topic  in  the  last 
two  chapters.  But  the  word  Atonement,  though  not 
the  one  under  which  the  Scriptures  usually  describe 
the  work  of  human  redemption,  has  become  so 
prominent  in  Christian  literature,  and  invested  with 
such  peculiar  interest,  that  we  do  not  feel  that  our 
statement  is  exhaustive  until  the  argument  has  em- 
braced this  topic  as  it  lies  in  our  church  theologies. 
We  shall  note  here  the  various  aspects  of  opinion 
which  this  phraseology  is  supposed  to  indicate. 
We  do  this,  not  for  the  sake  of  controversy,  but  for 
the  sake  of  perspicuity.  We  shall  thus  accept  and 
appropriate  all  the  truth  which  this  phraseology 
may  symbolize,  and  we  shall  make  our  own  doctrine 
clearly  denned  and  understood.  Very  likely  we  may 
not  state  these  forms  of  belief  with  the  sharp  pre- 
cision with  which  they  are  drawn  out  in  systems  of 
dogmatic  theology,  which  we  have  not  time  nor  wish 


THE    ATONEMENT.  215 

now  to  turn  over.  We  shall  state  them,  however, 
as  we  have  met  them,  and  as  we  suppose  they  lie 
practically  in  believing  minds. 

The  atonement  is  reconciliation  of  man  to  God. 
Two  things  are  implied  by  this  word ;  first,  the  final 
results  which  the  atonement  would  effectuate,  and, 
secondly,  the  modes  and  procedures  by  which  these 
results  are  sought.  One  refers  to  the  end,  the  other 
to  the  means  employed. 

On  the  first  point  we  do  not  know  that  there  is 
any  diversity  of  opinion,  at  least  any  that  is  worth 
our  analysis.  The  design  of  God  in  the  great  plan 
of  redemption  is  to  make  man  holy.  Its  last  results, 
then,  are  in  the  human  soul.  They  are  entirely  sub- 
jective. When  human  nature  is  raised  up  and 
purified,  and  brought  into  harmonic  relations  with 
the  Divine  nature,  the  final  results  of  the  Divine 
plan  are  accomplished.  It  is  very  true,  that  there  is 
a  great  deal  of  phraseology  among  theological  writ- 
ers which  would  fairly  imply  that  the  atonement 
wrought  a  change  in  God  as  well  as  man,  in  that  it 
made  him  placable  and  "  cooled  his  wrath  "  ;  but  we, 
presume  that  these  are  ideas  which  all  intelligent 
believers  would  now  disavow.  God  is  unchangea- 
ble iove  and  justice,  and  the  only  change  sought  is 
subjectively  in  man,  so  as  to  bring  him  within  the 
scope  of  that  love  and  justice. 

But  when  we  come  to  ask  what  are  the  modes 
and  procedures  by  which  God  seeks  to  effect  this 
change  in  man,  we  find  a  diversity  of  speculations 
and  theories.  They  may  be  reduced,  however,  to 


216  THE    NEW    MAN. 

four,  and  be  characterized  with  sufficient  precision 
as  the  theory  of  substitution,  of  exhibition,  of  satis- 
faction, and  of  mediation. 

1.  That  of  substitution  supposes  that  Christ  suf- 
fered strictly  and  literally  in  the  stead  of  man.  The 
law  of  God  denounces  eternal  misery  against  sin, 
even  to  the  smallest  transgression.  But  all  men 
have  sinned,  and  the  execution  of  the  law  upon  them 
would  consign  the  whole  race  to  hopeless  ruin. 
Then  Christ  comes  as  a  substitute,  and  bears  in  his 
own  person  an  amount  of  suffering  equivalent  to 
the  eternal  punishment  of  all  mankind. 

But  all  mankind  are  not  therefore  saved.  Each 
has  something  to  do  individually  in  order  to  appro- 
priate to  himself  the  benefits  of  this  provision.  He 
receives  them  by  an  act  of  faith  in  this  vicarious 
atonement,  whereby  all  his  sins  are  cancelled. 

We  reject  all  this  as  the  plan  of  system-builders, 
but  not  of  God.  We  reject  it  primarily  on  Scripture 
ground,  since  the  original  terms  from  which  our 
word  atonement  comes  do  not  include  the  notion  of 
vicarious  substitution.*  That  our  sins  were  made 
over  to  Christ  and  his  merits  made  over  to  us,  so 
that  the  account  may  stand  balanced  in  the  book  of 


*  The  Hebrew  verb  "133  (Kapher),  to  atone,  and  its  Greek  correlates 
i\u(TKop.ai,  c£tXao/i<u,  and  KaraXXdcrcrca,  mean  properly  to  produce  agree- 
ment. The  lexicographers  include  "  to  appease"  within  the  import  of 
the  first  two,  but  the  element  of  vicarious  substitution  is  totally  want- 
ing. See  Gen.  xxxii.  20  ;  Ex.  xxx.  12  ;  Ezek.  xvi.  63 ;  xlv.  15  ;  Dan. 
ix.  24;  Is.  xxii.  14;  Rom.  v.  11 ;  2  Cor.  v.  18-20;  Eph.  ii.  16;  Col. 
i.  20;  Heb.  ii.  17  ;  Matt.  v.  24. 


THE    ATONEMENT.  217 

doom,  are  notions  which  we  hold  to  be  remnants  of 
scholastic  web-weaving,  having  no  basis  in  Scripture 
or  in  the  nature  of  things.  How  Christ  "  takes  our 
infirmities  and  bears  our  sicknesses"  will  be  quite 
obvious  by  reference  to  the  language  of  the  Evan- 
gelist in  Matthew  viii.  17.  What  he  did  for  man 
physically  illustrates  what  he  was  doing  for  man 
spiritually.  He  did  not  cure  the  leper  by  becoming 
one  himself,  thus  drawing  off  the  disease  into  his 
own  person ;  he  cured  him  by  cleansing  the  leprosy 
away. 

But,  again,  there  is  no  economy  in  this  plan.  The 
design  of  infinite  mercy  is  the  prevention  of  suf- 
fering in  the  universe.  But  under  this  scheme  no 
suffering  has  been  saved.  Just  as  great  an  amount 
has  transpired  as  if  Christ  had  never  come,  and  the 
whole  race  been  doomed  to  eternal  woe.  All  that 
woe  was  concentred  on  him,  who  was  "  surrounded, 
and,  as  it  were,  besieged  with  an  army  of  sorrows." 
The  storm  has  had  its  way,  and  spent  all  its  rage, 
and  effected  all  its  ruin,  only  the  scene  of  ruin  was 
transferred  to  another  field.  But  there  it  is,  and  there 
it  lies,  an  equal  space  of  blackness  and  desolation 
in  the  fair  universe  of  God.  The  punishment  has 
fallen  in  all  its  weight,  and  produced  all  its  pangs, 
only  it  has  taken  a  different  direction.  All  the  differ- 
ence is  this,  —  that  the  guilty  who  deserved  it  would 
otherwise  have  borne  it,  whereas  the  innocent  that 
did  not  deserve  it  bears  it  now !  No  matter,  in  the 
light  of  this  argument,  whether  the  innocent  were 
a  willing  victim  or  not.  Such  a  scheme  of  mercy 

19 


218  THE    NEW    MAN. 

has  prevented  no  suffering,  nor  saved  the  universe  a 
single  pang. 

"  But  this  plan  is  the  only  one  that  can  produce 
holiness."  In  other  phrase,  they  alone  whose  faith 
takes  this  special  and  technical  form  are  holy.  The 
assumption  means  that,  if  it  means  any  thing,  and 
it  is  quite  as  inconsistent  with  the  known  facts  of 
history  as  with  a  comprehending  charity.  Charity  is 
the  prime  essential  of  salvation,  and  it  is  not  apt  to 
coexist  very  long  with  that  exclusive  spirit  which 
comes  from  making  belief  in  dogmas  the  separating 
line  of  human  character. 

So,  again,  we  reject  this  theory,  because  of  the 
adjuncts  which  it  draws  along  with  it,  and  which  no 
logic  that  we  are  masters  of  can  clear  away.  It 
makes  salvation  depend  on  the  accidents  of  birth, 
locality,  and  position.  All  who  lived  before  Christ 
are  lost,  for  no  such  atonement  was  preached  to  them. 
The  Jews  even,  who  believed  prospectively  in  Christ, 
believed  in  him  not  as  a  suffering  Messiah,  and 
elaborated  no  such  theory  as  this  from  their  own 
Scripture.  All  who  live  outside  of  Christendom  are 
lost,  for  they  never  heard  of  this  atonement,  and 
could  not  be  saved  by  believing  it.  Alas  for  the 
sages  and  good  men  who  lived  by  the  light  of  nature 
as  well  as  they  might,  and  the  record  of  whose  vir- 
tues so  often  flings  shame  upon  our  Christian  prac- 
tice! For  four  thousand  years  the  world  was  a 
mistake,  and  man  a  failure,  and  with  few  exceptions 
he  is  a  failure  yet.  All  who  die  before  the  age  of 
rationality  are  lost,  for  without  rationality  they  can- 


THE    ATONEMENT.  219 

not  grasp  such  a  faith ;  and  so  infancy  and  childhood 
go  down  in  a  hopeless  procession  into  that  folding 
night  which  the  fingers  of  morning  are  never  to  un- 
bar. Most  who  die  within  Christendom  are  lost, 
including  the  vast  numbers  of  humble  and  pious 
men  and  women  who  never  theologize,  but  simply 
trust  in  Christ  and  there  leave  the  matter,  and 
thence  build  their  hope  in  heaven,  —  but  in  vain- 
We  dread  the  influence  of  these  ideas  on  our  wor- 
ship, for  they  darken  our  thought  of  God ;  on  our 
charity,  for  they  hedge  it  in  and  destroy  all  large, 
genial,  and  goodly  fellowship ;  on  olir  preparation 
for  a  better  state,  for  they  make  faith,  and  not  life, 
primary  and  fundamental.* 

2.  The  second  theory  supposes  it  necessary  that 
God  should  make  such  an  exhibition  to  the  universe 
of  his  displeasure  against  sin,  that  men  would  be 
impressed  with  the  idea  of  its  deadly  nature.  Such 
an  exhibition  was  the  scene  on  Calvary.  Forgive- 
ness on  simple  repentance  were  not  otherwise  safe. 


*  We  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  all  these  dismal  consequences  are  ac- 
knowledged and  embraced  by  all  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  a  vicarious 
atonement.  But  admitting  that  the  end  of  the  atonement  is  to  pro- 
duce a  change  not  in  God,  but  in  man,  we  say  these  consequences  are 
the  necessary  corollaries  of  the  theory  of  substitution.  For  the  mat- 
ter stands  thus :  — 

A  vicarious  atonement  by  the  death  of  Christ  was  not  necessary  to 
prevent  suffering,  for  the  whole  equivalent  suffering  has  transpired. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  salvation,  if  human  beings  are  saved  without 
believing  it. 

If  they  are  not  saved  without  believing  it,  then  all  the  adjuncts  be- 
long to  it  which  the  text  details. 


220  THE    NEW    MAN. 

They  would  sin  again  and  again,  if  they  thought  for- 
giveness were  so  cheaply  obtained.  Not  so  when 
they  look  at  the  great  agony  on  Calvary,  where  they 
see  at  once  the  cost  of  forgiveness  and  the  frown  of 
God  upon  transgression. 

We  lay  off  from  all  this  so  much  as  would  impute 
to  God  the  work  of  scene-showing  for  the  sake  of 
sensible  impression,  if  such  a  conception  be  included, 
and  then  we  come  to  the  essential  truth  which  this 
theory  contains.  The  cross  t's,  in  a  most  important 
sense,  the  expression  of  God's  hatred  of  sin.  There 
is  the  point  where  the  awful  antagony  between 
the  eternal  purity  and  human  corruption  was  even 
brought  down  into  the  sphere  of  sense  and  made 
apprehensible  there.  Would  the  Son  of  God  be- 
come incarnate  and  surround  himself  with  the  lowly 
conditions  of  mortal  existence,  would  such  a  being 
suffer  and  die,  would  all  this  wealth  of  means  be 
expended  to  banish  sin  from  the  domains  of  God, 
unless  he  regarded  it  as  the  supreme  curse,  the  in- 
finite woe  ?  The  sinner  may,  indeed,  measure  the 
depth  of  his  guilt  by  the  height  of  that  great  agony. 
But  let  him  not  look  to  Calvary  as  the  place  of 
scenic  display.  Rather  were  the  agony  and  the 
darkened  sun  the  ultimation  on  the  plane  of  nature 
of  the  state  of  fallen  humanity.  The  Jewish  Church 
was  darkened,  she  on  whom  the  Everlasting  Light 
arose.  Her  sun  was  blotted  out,  and  her  stars  had 
fallen  from  the  sky.  Her  children  had  commit- 
ted that  sin  which  is  called  unpardonable.  They 
had  been  guilty  of  the  awful  crime  of  Deicide,  for 


THE    ATONEMENT.  221 

they  had  killed  the  Divine  Life  in  the  soul,  and  in 
the  Church  God's  mystical  body.  Let  this  spirit- 
ual state  be  outshadowed  in  the  visible  world  and 
on  the  plane  of  nature,  and  there  culminate  in  its 
last  results,  and  what  else  would  they  be,  what 
else  could  they  be,  but  the  sun  gone  out  in  the 
heavens,  and  that  form  which  was  the  incarnation 
of  the  Divine  Life  hung  bleeding  upon  the  cross, 
or  laid  in  the  sepulchre  stiff  and  cold?  It  is  a 
mistake  to  imagine  that  here  is  an  exhibition  of 
the  nature  of  Jewish  sin  in  particular,  and  not  of 
all  sin,  ever  and  everywhere.  All  sin  is  a  conflict 
with  the  Divine-  nature,  only  here  the  scene  of 
that  conflict  was  outshadowed  from  the  field  of 
spirit  into  the  field  of  sense.  The  Divine  Life  is 
first  resisted  and  crucified  within,  and  after  that  we 
are  in  opposition  to  all  its  embodiments  without, 
and  if  in  our  power  we  should  resist  and  crucify  it 
there.  The  cause  of  eternal  truth  and  right,  God's 
ever-returning  and  reappearing  Messiah,  has  always 
waked  up  the  same  conflict  as  it  comes  athwart 
the  lusts  of  selfish  men,  and  every  country  has  its 
bloody  Calvary  and  its  holy  sepulchre  where  that 
truth  was  murdered  and  entombed.  On  all  the  high 
places  of  the  earth  has  the  Christ  been  slain.  In 
Judea  he  appeared  in  human  form  and  with  more 
intimate  relations  with  nature,  and  so  there  nature 
was  afflicted  and  shaken  when  the  sacrifice  was 
made.  It  would  be  so  again  could  there  be  such  a 
thing  as  a  reincarnation  of  the  Word.  It  is  the 
essential  opposition  between  an  unregenerate  human 

19* 


222  THE    NEW    MAN. 

nature,  with  its  cruel  lusts  and  passions,  and  the 
Divine  nature  so  pure  and  awfully  serene.  The 
denial,  the  conflict,  and  the  Deicidium  commence  in 
the  secret  soul.  Their  forth-going  and  culmination 
are  seen  in  the  awful  spectacle  on  Calvary. 

We  must  not  imagine,  however,  that  impressions 
from  without  upon  the  senses  are  chiefly  efficacious 
in  making  forgiveness  safe  or  sin  hateful.  When 
God  comes  within  us  and  reveals  us,  and  shows  our 
inhering  corruption  in  contrast  with  the  eternal 
purity  and  holiness,  we  have  an  exhibition  of  the 
hatefulness  of  sin,  such  as  no  spectacle  in  the  natu- 
ral world  can  give.  It  is  the  everlasting  light  let 
down  through  the  abysses  of  our  being,  detecting  sin 
in  all  its  hiding-places,  and  unveiling  its  intrinsic 
qualities  to  the  afflicted  consciousness.  Whoever 
has  attained  to  regeneration,  forgiveness,  and  peace, 
through  these  self-explorations  (and  forgiveness 
comes  in  no  other  way),  no  more  desires  to  relapse  into 
his  former  state,  than  the  prisoner  who  has  emerged 
out  of  the  miasma  of  a  noisome  dungeon  into  the 
blessed  light  and  air,  desires  to  be  remanded  to  his 
prison  again.  "  They  would  sin  again  and  again,  if 
they  thought  repentance  were  so  easily  obtained." 
As  if  the  new  man  could  regard  sin  as  the  supreme 
good,  be  drawn  to  it  by  all  his  interior  sympathies, 
and  only  serve  God  under  duress  and  be  bound  to 
that  service  by  galling  chains ! 

3.  The  third  theory  supposes  that  in  some  way 
the  Divine  law  was  satisfied  by  Jesus  Christ,  so  as 
to  render  it  possible  for  God  to  pardon  sin  ;  and  this 


THE   ATONEMENT.  223 

we  have  called  the  theory  of  satisfaction.  It  does 
not  assert  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  were  strictly 
vicarious  ;  but  it  does  assert,  that  Christ  in  some 
way  satisfied  the  demands  of  the  law,  preserved  its 
honor  and  integrity,  so  that  now  men  can  be  saved 
on  condition  of  repentance ;  whereas  if  Christ  had 
not  died,  repentance  would  have  been  unavailing. 

All  this  we  hold.  But  we  must  explain  more 
fully  what  we  understand  by  the  Divine  law,  in 
order  to  evolve  whatever  of  truth  this  formula  of 
doctrine  may  contain. 

By  law  we  may  mean  either  of  two  things.  We 
may  mean  those  principles  of  eternal  order  accord- 
ing to  which  the  Divine  Mind  always  operates,  and 
the  Divine  energies  always  flow.  These  principles 
pervade  all  modes  of  being,  spirit  and  matter,  the 
spirit  world  and  the  natural.  They  constitute  that 
law  which  Hooker  defines  so  well,  "  whose  seat  is 
the  bosom  of  God,  and  whose  voice  is  the  harmony  of 
the  world."  By  this  the  worlds  are  formed,  for  they 
are  the  emanations  of  the  Eternal  Energy  shaped  by 
the  Eternal  Reason,  "  without  which  nothing  was 
made  that  was  made."  They  are  the  Divine  Word 
in  action,  constituting  that  inmost  life  of  things 
which  determines  all  form  and  motion,  and  is  ever 
in  effort  to  shape  and  guide  them  so  as  to  express 
and  copy  out  the  Divine  idea  of  the  supreme  ex- 
cellency and  beauty.  "  The  speech  of  God  which 
produces  the  works  of  creation  is  the  immutable 
reason,  not  a  sound  spoken  and  vanishing,  but  a 
force  eternally  subsisting  and  flowing  through  na- 


224  THE    NEW    MAN. 

ture."  *  The  method  by  which  this  force  always 
flows  is  the  Divine  law,  for  it  is  the  method  of  Di- 
vine action.  It  is  the  SUPREME  ORDER,  which  God 
cannot  break,  and  which  if  man  breaks,  he  surely 
suffers.  In  accordance  with  this  same  truth,  the 
Greek  called  the  creation  the  Cosmos,  or  Beautiful 
Order. 

Or,  again,  we  may  mean  by  the  Divine  law  these 
inhering  and  pervading  principles  described  and 
embodied  in  a  written  code.  But  this  is  all  the 
same,  except  that  now  the  law  that  ever  works  in 
the  heart  and  substance  of  things  is  put  into  the 
formulas  of  language.  Divine  revelation  is  a  dis- 
closure to  man  of  those  immutable  principles  ac- 
cording to  which  the  spirit-world  is  arranged;  for 
man  had  lost  the  intuitive  knowledge  of  these  in 
his  degeneracy  and  fall.  In  other  phrase,  the  Di- 
vine Word,  by  which  all  things  are  made,  whose 
eternal  forth -goings  constitute  the  inmost  life  of 
angel,  spirit,  or  man,  and  whose  lowest  revealments 
and  blossomings  constitute  the  natural  world  with 
all  its  outspread  scenery,  is  clothed  in  the  symbols 
of  speech,  and  that  gives  us  the  Bible  or  written 
word  ;  but  clothed  in  nature,  or  clothed  in  language, 
its  established  sequences  or  its  order  of  operation 
is  the  perfect  and  everlasting  law. 

All  this  is  very  clear.     But  we  illustrate  further* 

*  "  Dei  quippe  sublimor  ante  suum  factum  locutio  ipsius  sui  facti  est 
immutabilis  ratio,  quae  non  habet  sonum  strepentem  atque  transeuntem, 
sed  vim  sempiterne  raanentem  et  temporaliter  operantem." — Augustine, 
De  Civ.  Dei 


THE   ATONEMENT.  225 

It  is  a  law  of  nature  that  matter  gravitates  towards 
matter,  a  law  pervading  primarily  every  atom  and 
thence  every  world,  making  planets  and  suns  travel 
the  fields  of  space  according  to  a  divine  arrangement, 
and  thus  unrolling  in  its  order  the  scenery  of  the 
skies.  It  was  well  for  man  to  know  this  law  ;  but 
his  knowing  it  did  not  make  it,  and  does  not  alter  it. 
It  was  all  the  same  before  put  into  the  formulas  of 
Newton's  Principia.  Again,  it  is  a  law  of  the  spirit- 
world  that  love  unifies  and  draws  together,  and  hate 
repels  and  puts  asunder ;  that  one  places  the  soul  in 
harmony  with  the  Divine  nature,  and  so  draws  it  to 
God,  and  that  the  other  places  it  in  opposition,  so  that 
the  Divine  nature  repels  it.  This  law,  operating  first 
in  individual  minds  and  thence  in  the  social  and  spir- 
itual worlds,  arranges  the  vast  scheme  of  existence 
through  all  its  descending  grades  and  orders,  from 
the  blessed  spirits  who  "  all  day  long  bask  round 
the  throne  of  God,"  to  those  who  seek  the  abysses 
of  night,  away  from  the  Divine  countenance  be- 
cause they  "  hate  its  beams."  This  law  creates  and 
arranges  heaven  and  hell.  This  ever  was  and  ever 
must  be.  And  when  revelation  placed  before  us  the 
words,  Come,  ye  blessed  !  and  Depart,  ye  cursed  !  it 
put  into  its  formula  a  law  of  eternal  order. 

When  written  laws  are  not  the  exposition  of  in- 
working  and  unchanging  principles,  we  call  them 
arbitrary.  They  are  something  superimposed.  They 
are  forced  upon  us  by  a  foreign  will,  a  will  painfully 
dissonant  from  that  whose  voice  is  the  harmony  of 
the  worlds.  They  are  not  transcripts  of  the  un- 


226  THE    NEW    MAN. 

changeable  Justice.  Hence,  though  man's  laws  may 
be  arbitrary,  God's  never  can  be.  He  never  can  put 
into  a  written  code,  for  man's  observance,  aught 
else  than  the  principles  of  the  Beautiful  Order.  The 
previous  law  was  perfect,  for  it  was  God's  in  working 
and  perfect  will.  God  is  wise,  and  cannot  err  in  the 
transcript.  He  will  transcribe  none  other,  for  he 
will  not  act  in  opposition  to  himself  or  in  discord- 
ance with  his  own  will. 

Now  we  fully  believe  and  hold  that  the  race  could 
not  be  redeemed,  and  the  supreme  order  remain  un- 
broken, without  the  incarnation,  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion of  the  Son  of  Man.  These  are  all  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  everlasting  law,  —  not  of  an  arbitrary 
rule  of  Divine  action,  but  of  principles  that  inhere 
in  the  constitution  of  the  universe.  Could  we  see 
things  from  that  point  whence  the  omniscient  eye 
surveys  them,  looking  from  centre  to  circumference, 
we  should  see,  doubtless,  why  God  could  not  other- 
wise impart  himself  to  humanity  so  as  to  regenerate 
and  save  it.  We  should  see  that  there  was  no  other 
mode  of  the  Divine  advent,  without  some  infraction 
of  that  law  whose  voice  is  the  universal  harmony. 
Even  with  our  low  and  finite  views,  we  can  see 
some  of  the  reasons  why  this  is  so.  For  suppose 
God  had  been  revealed  to  darkened  and  fallen  man, 
not  through  a  humanity  that  came  down  into  man's 
condition,  but  out  of  the  naked  heavens  and  in  his 
unclothed  and  burning  essence,  how  might  man's 
free  agency  have  been  destroyed,  while  God  became 
to  him  a  blasting  light  or  a  consuming  fire !  Or 


THE   ATONEMENT.  227 

suppose  God  had  imparted  himself  by  an  influ- 
ent life,  which  human  nature  weak  and  palsied 
by  sin  could  not  bear ;  how  might  man  have  moved 
under  a  power  that  overlaid  his  volitions  and  pos- 
sessed his  faculties,  and  so  have  been  merged  in 
passive  nature,  and  ceased  to  be  man !  Hence  we 
say  and  believe,  that  not  only  the  death  of  Christ, 
but  the  incarnation,  with  all  its  concomitants,  the 
radiating  fact  in  human  history,  to  which  all  fore- 
time and  after-time  have  reference,  is  a  fulfilment 
of  the  eternal  law,  the  perfection  and  preservation 
of  the  Beautiful  Order.* 

4.  The  pernicious  consequence  of  framing  a  the- 
ory of  the  atonement  which  shall  be  dominant  and 
exclusive,  must,  we  think,  be  obvious.  In  any  single 
view  of  this  central  fact,  we  get  only  one  of  its  be- 
nignant aspects,  —  and  it  is  proof  enough  that  this 
is  a  Divine  work,  that  no  one  theory  which  men 
have  framed  about  it  is  exhaustive  or  comprehends 
it.  It  will  be  seen  at  once,  that  the  views  presented 
under  the  last  head  pertain  more  to  the  reasons  and 
motives  of  Divine  action,  than  to  the  positive  duties 


*  We  have  heard  it  said,  "  How  are  our  past  sins  to  he  cancelled, 
without  a  vicarious  atonement  ?  Even  could  we  become  perfectly 
holy,  there  is  the  unsatisfied  law  claiming  vengeance  for  the  guilty 
past."  As  if  God's  law  were  arbitrary,  a  mere  parchment  regulation, 
that  requires  vengeance  to  be  rained  upon  us  from  without,  after  we 
have  been  brought  into  inward  harmony  with  the  Divine  will !  Since 
the  law  is  none  other  than  the  Divine  nature  acting  within  us,  it  is 
satisfied  when  it  has  brought  our  natures  into  entire  concord  with  it- 
self, and  never  till  then.  After  that,  punishment  for  the  past  would 
be  revenge. 


228  THE    NEW    MAN. 

of  man.  The  sinner  may  receive  all  the  benefits  of 
the  atonement,  without  knowing  all  the  reasons  and 
motives  of  it.  We  come,  then,  to  another  theory, 
that  of  mediation,  not  as  distinct  from  the  last  two, 
but  including  them  and  a  great  deal  more.  It  does 
not  attempt  to  scan  this  great  work  from  the  Divine 
point  of  view,  but  to  present  it  to  man  in  its  prac- 
tical bearing,  and  thus  to  turn  its  full  power  upon 
the  human  soul. 

We  have  already  attempted  to  describe  the  atone- 
ment in  this  bearing  and  aspect,  in  the  last  two 
chapters.  It  offers  to  us  Jesus  Christ  as  the  medium 
of  Divine  truth,  and  of  that  sovereign  energy  under 
which  man  is  created  anew  and  restored  to  God's 
resplendent  image.  It  seeks  less  to  explore  the  pro- 
cesses by  which  this  is  done,  or  the  reasons  which 
necessitate  this  mode  of  Divine  operation.  Enough 
that  God  is  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto 
himself,  and  that  those  who  yield  themselves  to  him 
have  their  natures  restored  to  heavenly  order  and 
peace,  and  are  drawn  to  God  in  relations  that  are 
sweet  and  tender.  It  is  this  which  meets  the  wants 
of  man  as  a  sinner.  It  is  this  which  has  saved 
thousands  who  never  elaborated  a  philosophy  of 
salvation.  Profoundly  acknowledging  the  Messi- 
ahship  of  Christ  and  his  indwelling  Divinity,  and 
brought  in  meek  surrender  at  his  feet,  they  find 
themselves  ensphered  by  the  power  of  the  Godhead, 
whereby  they  change  from  sin  to  holiness ;  and 
health  runs  through  their  whole  spiritual  frames ; 
the  palsied  powers  are  touched  and  lifted  up ;  the 


THE    ATONEMENT.  229 

Adam  of  consciousness  is  expelled,  and  the  Christ 
of  consciousness  is  formed  out  of  the  old  chaos  ;  a 
new  creation  beneath  the  eye  of  God,  "  how  good, 
how  fair,  answering  his  great  idea."  This,  in  a 
most  important  sense,  is  being  clothed  in  the  right- 
eousness of  Christ,  not  by  a  factitious  transfer  of 
his  righteousness  to  our  account,  but  by  his  life 
imported  into  our  natures,  and  thence  going  out 
into  conduct.  It  is  a  righteousness  not  imputed, 
but  imparted.  This  is  the  essential  work  of  the 
atonement,  and  in  this  wise  it  lies  in  the  inmost  con- 
sciousness of  all  true  and  humble  believers.  They 
know  that  God  in  Christ  is  brought  near  to  them, 
and  folds  them  in  his  renewing  light  and  love.  That 
God  in  imparting  himself  through  such  a  Mediator 
fulfils  his  own  eternal  law,  they  doubt  not ;  their 
part  is  to  be  brought  into  such  relation  to  Christ, 
that  his  imparted  life  shall  be  the  prompting  of  all 
their  affections  and  powers.  This  is  the  atonement, 
we  say,  as  it  lies  at  the  centre  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness, and  as  such  it  appears  conspicuously  in 
the  first  conversions  to  Christianity.  It  was  God  in 
Christ,  coming  anew  into  the  heart  of  humanity 
and  making  conquest  of  all  its  powers,  striking 
down  the  persecutor  with  shafts  of  light,  and  sway- 
ing vast  multitudes,  because  on  them  "the  Holy 
Ghost  fell."  This  relation  to  a  Divine  Mediator  is 
cognizable  in  the  intuitions  of  all  pious  men  ;  it 
has  inspired  every  thing  in  Christian  literature  that 
speaks  to  our  inmost  needs,  and  all  that  truly  lives 
in  its  sacred  songs.  Sinful  man,  by  a  lowly  surren- 
20 


230 


THE    NEW    MAN. 


der  of  himself  to  Christ,  brought  into  dear  and  har- 
monic relations  with  the  Divine  nature,  —  this  is 
the  fact  of  the  atonement,  whatever  be  its  philosophy. 
The  fact  cannot  be  reasoned  out  of  the  true  believer, 
for  it  belongs  to  his  intuitive  consciousness.  To 
account  for  it,  to  draw  it  out  in  schemes  of  theol- 
ogy, and  give  the  reasons  of  the  Divine  plan,  is  a 
process  of  logic  alone.  This  last  process  may  lead 
into  mazes  and  errors,  for  logic  does  not  create 
truth,  nor  see  it  in  its  source,  but  seeks  rather  to  ham- 
mer its  broken  ore  into  shapes  for  convenient  hand- 
ling. With  our  intuitive  consciousness  it  is  other- 
wise ;  for  with  it  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
truth  in  its  living  squrce,  and  gaze  with  open  eye  on 
its  supreme  excellences  and  glories. 

It  will  hence  appear  what  is  the  peculiar  efficacy 
of  faith  in  the  salvation  of  man,  which  the  New 
Testament  writers  make  so  much  account  of,  and 
on  which  Paul,  especially,  insists  so  largely.  It  is 
not  merely  a  belief  in  any  amount  of  dogmas  and 
postulates,  however  true.  It  is  not  merely  a  belief  in 
Christ  as  an  authorized  teacher  of  religion  and  mor- 
als. It  is  such  belief  as  shall  lead  to  an  all-confiding 
trust.  Trust  is  the  more  appropriate  word ;  for  the 
faith  in  Christ  that  saves,  is  not  so  much  the  result 
of  intellection  as  a  perception  of  his  moral  grand- 
eur and  Divinity,  adequate  to  our  necessities,  and 
adapted  to  fill  the  chasm  in  our  natures.  Then  we 
fly  to  him  with  the  swift  alacrity  of  a  child  that 
seeks  a  lost  parent,  and  our  natures  are  tender  and 
pliable  beneath  his  hand.  Faith  in  Christ  is  not  a 


THE   ATONEMENT.  231 

mere  belief  in  the  historical  advent,  but  in  the  living 
Christ  that  ever  comes  from  the  heavens  as  the 
Comforter  and  Redeemer  of  souls.  Such  was  the 
faith  for  which  Paul  reasoned  so  earnestly ;  not  a 
faith  which  should  entitle  the  believer  to  a  share 
in  some  reserved  fund  of  foreign  merit,  but  bring 
him  into  living  relations  to  a  Divine  Mediator,  so 
that  his  heart  should  be  swept  all  the  while  with 
renewing  gales,  and  have  a  righteousness  imparted 
to  him  every  hour.  Precisely  here  is  the  point 
where  he  contrasts  the  dead  works  of  the  ceremonial 
law  with  the  works  of  faith  under  Christianity. 
They  were  the  righteousness  of  the  outward  man. 
These  were  the  outgoings,  the  outburstings,  shall  we 
not  say,  of  the  life  whose  unfailing  tides  came  in 
upon  them  in  consequence  of  their  relation  to  a  liv- 
ing Intercessor  in  the  heavens.  Paul  himself  had 
had  a  signal  experience  of  this  influence,  melting 
the  adamant  of  Jewish  bigotry,  and  making  the 
Pharisee  as  humble  as  a  child,  while  Hhe  source  of 
this  influence  was  unveiled  to  him  in  its  insufferable 
splendors.  Hence  his  great  topic  is  faith  in  Christ, 
as  the  essential  of  inward  life  and  power ;  the  es- 
sential of  that  regenerating  influence  which  should 
draw  man  to  God,  and  so  restore  human  nature  and 
the  Divine  nature  to  their  primal  harmonies.  "  One 
Mediator,  Christ,"  says  old  Tyndal,  "  and  by  that 
word  vnderstand  an  attonemaker,  a  peace-maker,  and 
brynger  into  grace  and  fauour,  hauyng  full  power  to 
do  so." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

NEW  HEAVENS  AND  A  NEW  EAKTH. 


"  What  this  repentance  was  which  the  new  covenant  required  as  one  of  the  con- 
ditions to  be  performed  by  all  those  who  should  receive  the  benefits  of  that  cove- 
nant, is  plain  in  the  Scripture  to  be  not  only  sorrow  for  sins  past,  but  (what  is  a 
natural  consequence  of  such  sorrow  if  it  be  real)  a  turning  from  them  into  a  new 
'  and  contrary  life."  —  LOCKE'S  REASONABLENESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

"  Work  !  and  thou  shalt  bless  the  day 

Ere  thy  task  be  done ; 
They  that  work  not,  cannot  pray, 
Cannot  feel  the  sun. 

"  Worlds  thou  mayst  possess  with  health 

And  unslumbering  powers  ; 
Industry  alone  is  wealth,  — 
What  we  do  is  ours." 


THERE  is  a  state  of  mind  which  we  call  repent- 
ance,—  the  antecedent  of  regeneration  and  perma- 
nent peace,  whose  nature  it  behooves  us  well  to  un- 
derstand. Whenever  the  book  of  life  within  us  is 
unfolded,  and  the  Divine  light  falls  upon  its  open 
pages,  we  see  and  feel  the  afflicting  contrast  between 
that  life  and  the  all-perfect  law.  The  immanence 
of  God  in  unregenerate  man  brings  to  view  at 
length  the  all-holy  and  pure  in  contrast  with  human 
corruption.  Then  sin  and  the  corrupt  fountains  of 


NEW  HEAVENS  AND  A  NEW  EAKTH.        233 

sin  appear  to  us  more  hideous  than  death,  not 
merely  for  the  inconveniences  that  will  follow  after 
them,  but  on  account  of  their  own  intrinsic  nature. 
Nothing,  then,  appears  to  us  so  dreadful  to  be  borne, 
as  the  present  burden  of  moral  disease  ;  and  we  shall 
pray  for  its  removal  more  earnestly  than  we  would 
pray  for  the  extraction  of  a  cancer  from  our  vitals. 
The  affliction  which  we  experience  from  the  unveil- 
ing of  inherent  corruption,  is  what  the  Scriptures 
describe  under  the  phrase  "  godly  sorrow."  It  is  not 
regret  09  account  of  the  consequences  of  sin,  but  an 
afflicting  consciousness  of  its  nature.  The  change 
of  life  prompted  by  this  state  of  mind  the  Scriptures 

Call  REPENTANCE.* 

Hence  an  all-important  distinction.  Neither  sor- 
row nor  emotion  of  any  kind  is  true  repentance. 
Godly  sorrow  precedes  and  prompts  it,  but  there 
may  be  godly  sorrow  even  without  it.  Our  trans- 
lators have  unfortunately  rendered  by  the  same  word 
two  others,  which  stand  for  very  different  ideas. 
One  word  implies  simply  sorrow  for  the  past ;  the 
other  implies  sorrow  for  the  past  consummated  in 
a  new  life.  One  is  mental  emotion.  The  other  is 
mental  emotion  invested  with  new  moralities.  One 
(/iera/jeXo?)  is  sorrow  of  mind,  and  is  used  to  de- 
scribe the  emotions  of  Judas  before  he  hanged  him- 
self.f  The  other  (fterdvoca)  is  change  of  purpose 
and  conduct,  and  describes  that  repentance  over 
which  the  angels  rejoice  as  they  bend  around  the 


*  2  Cor.  vii.  9,  10.  t  Matt  xxvii.  3. 

20" 


234  THE    NEW    MAN. 

returning  prodigal  to  breathe  over  him  his  welcome 
home.* 

Two  worlds  are  ours,  one  creative  of  the  other. 
There  is  the  inner  realm  of  thought,  emotion,  and 
imagination,  and  there  is  the  outward  realm  of 
practice,  where  thought,  emotion,  and  imagination 
take  their  investiture  of  flesh  and  matter,  and  pass 
into  nature  and  history.  In  one  we  have  them  in 
their  warmth  and  fusion,  in  the  other  we  have  them 
crystallized  into  fact.  All  radical  changes  in  char- 
acter begin  with  changes  in  the  inner  realm  of 
thought  and  emotion.  There  we  are  moved  upon 
by  the  powers  that  are  above  us;  by  the  Eternal 
Spirit  that  lies  on  our  souls  like  a  haunting  pres- 
ence, giving  us  visions  of  celestial  purity,  bitter  com- 
punctions, sighs  for  a  better  state,  and  images  that 
float  down  out  of  heaven  through  our  fancies.  But 
none  of  these  are  yet  ours.  They  sometimes  come 
without  any  agency  whatever  of  our  own.  Thus 
far  they  have  wrought  no  change  in  character,  for 
they  have  not  yet  passed  under  the  action  of  a  hu- 
man will.  Left  to  themselves  they  are  indetermi- 
nate as  celestial  ethers.  They  are  appropriated  by 
a  distinct  agency  on  our  part,  which  consists  in  giv- 
ing them  a  place  by  our  own  right  arm  among  fixed 
and  solid  realities.  The  thoughts,  and  emotions 
wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit  of  God  are  as  yet  for- 
eign to  us.  They  are  heavenly  treasures  let  down 
within  our  grasp.  We  grasp  them  by  fixing  them 

•  _    .  _  , 

*  Luke  xv.  10. 


NEW  HEAVENS  AND  A  NEW  EARTH.         235 

in  the  voluntary  life,  and  then  they  are  for  ever 
ours. 

The  words  heaven  and  earth  are  employed  by  the 
sacred  writers  to  describe  this  twofold  realm  of  in- 
ward faith  and  feeling,  and  outward  life  and  practice. 
For  heaven  is  the  higher  state  of  being,  and  earth 
is  the  world  of  grosser  substances.  Things  seen  are 
the  copies  and  manifestations  of  things  invisible. 
So  heaven  and  earth,  in  the  figurative  language  of 
Scripture,  mean,  first,  that  supernal  state  into  which 
man's  mind  may  be  elevated,  and  whence  it  may 
be  impressed  and  moved,  and,  again,  that  external 
sphere  of  action  into  which  this  state  passes  by  his 
free  volitions  and  energies  ;  one  a  counterpart  of  the 
other ;  the  last  imprinted  by  the  first  and  receiving 
and  fixing  its  ideals.* 

Or,  to  insist  on  a  still  more  literal  and  scientific 
exposition  of  the  terms,  earth  is  none  other  than  the 
atmospheres  of  heaven  arrested  and  condensed  in- 
to solid  forms.  The  ethers  that  expand  above  us 
through  infinite  depths  of  blue,  through  which  float 
the  amber  clouds  or  stream  the  glories  of  a  firma- 
ment of  suns,  are  simply  what  remains  of  those  at- 
mospheres that  determined  into  shape  and  became 
the  earths  of  a  beneficent  and  ever-working  system. 

"  For  instances  where  the  word  heaven  is  used  representatively  for 
the  highest  or  inmost  principles  and  truths,  and  earth  for  those  principles 
and  truths  embodied  in  grosser  forms,  in  the  external  life,  in  institutions 
religious  and  civil,  see  Is.  xiii.  13 ;  xxxiv.  4  ;  Ixv.  17  ;  Ixvi.  22  ;  Luke 
iii.  21 ;  xxi.  26;  John  i.  51  ;  iii.  13;  Acts  ii.  19,  20;  Col.  i.  20;  Rer. 
xxi.  1. 


236  THE    NEW    MAN. 

Even  thus  the  new  heaven  of  truth  that  opens  upon 
us,  and  the  celestial  ethers  that  play  upon  our  souls, 
are  arrested  and  made  permanent  by  being  turned 
into  new  moralities.  Out  of  the  new  heavens  that 
God  provides,  the  new  earth  is  formed,  —  and  then 
man  is  a  new  creation,  a  microcosm  in  which  all 
spiritual  and  earthly  things  are  abridged  and  pic- 
tured forth. 

From  this  exposition  of  the  nature  of  repentance, 
a  lesson  comes  to  us  which  is  most  important  and 
solemn.  There  is  a  constant  tendency  in  the  un- 
regenerate  heart,  to  seek  some  substitute  for  the 
new  creation,  in  obtaining  Divine  favor  and  pardon. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  mystic  faith,  sometimes  it  is 
mystic  emotion,  but  all  ending  short  of  new  morali- 
ties. Hence  the  pernicious  habit  of  delay  in  religion, 
under  the  delusive  idea  that  the  regenerate  man  is 
a  sudden  and  miraculous  creation  out  of  nothing, 
never  considering,  that  not  only  a  new  heaven  is  to 
be  created,  but  also  "  a  new  earth  in  which  dwelleth 
righteousness."  There  is  a  class  of  mental  exercises 
known  as  "  death-bed  repentances,"  the  nature  and 
efficacy  of  which  may  now  be  pretty  clearly  dis- 
tinguished. We  know,  for  we  have  seen,  the  spirit- 
ualizing influence  of  sickness  upon  the  heart  and 
character.  We  have  stood  by  the  bed  of  death, 
when  the  spirit  seemed  unclothed  gradually  and 
gently,  as  by  an  angel's  softest  touch,  and  finally 
passed  away  like  a  wave  scarcely  breaking  upon  the 
immortal  shores.  But  what  we  now  refer  to*  is 
the  sudden  and  radical  change  that  is  supposed 


NEW  HEAVENS  AND  A  NEW  EARTH.        237 

to  take  place  in  impenitent  men  who  have  postponed 
the  claims  of  God  and  the  angel-call,  when  thought 
and  feeling  are  deemed  a  sufficient  equivalent  for  a 
new  life.  It  is  evident  enough  that  even  godly  sorrow 
could  not  now  become  repentance.  Character  can  no 
more  be  built  on  thought  and  feeling,  than  a  house 
can  be  built  on  air.  Prayer  may  be  fervent,  but  pray- 
er at  that  hour  can  only  be  spoken,  not  acted.  Peni- 
tence may  be  deep,  but  it  cannot  be  turned  into  fact. 
Truth  may  be  contemplated,  but  it  cannot  crystallize 
into  conduct.  Good  purposes  may  be  formed,  but 
they  cannot  go  into  execution.  Once  the  feet  might 
have  moved  swift  on  the  errands  of  love,  once  the 
hand  was  strong  to  do  its  work.  But  the  feet  will 
not  now  bear  up  their  load,  and  "  the  graceful  right 
hand  has  lost  its  cunning."  God  may  bend  over  him 
the  new  heavens,  from  which  shine  the  eternal  stars, 
and  may  breathe  around  him  celestial  ethers  that 
play  into  his  heart,  but  the  new  earth  cannot  now 
be  formed  out  of  them,  and  without  both  no  man  is 
a  new  creation.  So  that  the  dying  man  wakes  up 
unchanged  among  spiritual  realities,  his  baseless  im- 
aginations all  vanishing  like  the  fast-fading  hues  of 
sunset  clouds,  when  the  blackness  of  night  is  all 
that  remains.  No  truth  is  ours  till  the  arm  has 
given  it  a  local  habitation,  and  no  emotion  passes 
into  a  permanent  frame  until  it  determines  into 
principle.  No  theology  is  saving  that  is  not  worked, 
no  man  is  in  the  way  to  heaven  who  is  not  in  the 
way  of  a  good  and  a  useful  life.  From  a  disregard 
of  these  truths,  how  many  have  sought  heaven  in 


238  THE    NEW    MAN. 

vain  through  "  imputed  righteousness,"  and  how 
many  churches  have  become  dead,  and  left  high  and 
dry  on  the  barren  downs,  while  the  stream  of  history 
is  sweeping  by  !  Faith  becomes  separated  from  life, 
having  no  connection  with  week-day  affairs,  and  the 
Church  stands  in  the  midst  of  society,  having  no 
more  living  relations  with  its  business  than  the 
bones  that  slumber  beneath  its  chancel-floors. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT. 

'*  Surrey  the  bright  dominions 

In  the  gorgeous  colors  drest 
Flung  from  off  the  purple  pinions 
Evening  spreads  throughout  the  west !  " 

WORDSWORTH. 

WE  ask  the  reader's  attention  a  little  further,  while 
we  retrace  the  path  we  have  gone  over,  and  note  the 
distinct  stages  of  Christian  progress.  Not  that  these 
can  always  be  so  defined  in  individual  experience, 
that  the  point  of  transition  from  one  to  another  will 
be  fully  marked  and  distinguished.  Nevertheless 
they  are  there ;  and,  described  in  succession,  they  will 
be  recognized  as  separate  portions  of  that  way  over 
which  the  pilgrim  travels  from  the  "  city  of  Destruc- 
tion "  to  the  "  city  of  God." 

1.  First  is  the  decisive  act  of  self-consecration  to 
the  Divine  Spirit,  that  speaks  in  us  and  claims  us 
from  our  infant  years.  The  idea  of  the  heavenly 
life,  once  received,  will  glow  in  the  young  mind  like 
a  live  coal,  every  thing  tending  to  fortify  the  holy 
purpose  and  make  it  the  governing  and  unitizing 
principle  of  all  endeavor.  Happy  are  they  who  have 
early  embraced  this  idea,  and  who,  in  the  first  joy- 


240  THE    NEW    MAN. 

cms  exercise  of  the  dawning  reason,  have  not  been 
disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision.  They  preserve 
their  youthful  virtue  "  englobed  "  within  them,  never 
yielding  to  depraved  hereditary  impulsions,  not  lis- 
tening to  the  voice  of  false  charmers,  but  to  the 
"  COME  UP  HITHER"  of  the  angel  powers.  The  first 
exercise  of  the  high  prerogatives  of  free  moral 
agency  is  thus  the  first  stage  in  a  life  of  holiness. 
Jt  is  the  first  decisive  CHOICE  between  hereditary  or 
surrounding  evil  that  sways  us  towards  the  world 
of  shadows,  and  the  God  that  ever  knocketh  at  the 
door  of  our  hearts  and  calleth  us  to  the  world  of 
light. 

2.  Those  who  have  chosen  the  good  and  the  true, 
and  the  life  in  conformity  with  them,  sometimes 
fondly  imagine  that  naught  lies  before  them  now 
but  a  path  of  roses.  They  think  the  Christian  life 
is  only  an  easy  progress  from  one  pleasant  prospect 
to  another.  But  they  find  they  are  mistaken.  They 
did  not  know  all  that  was  in  them  at  the  beginning. 
But  the  God  to  whom  they  have  consecrated  them- 
selves, the  Light  which  they  have  chosen  to  follow, 
is  sure  to  reveal  them.  He  comes  within  them  when 
invoked  and  welcomed,  first  to  pour  a  startling  radi- 
ance through  their  disordered  nature,  and  make  all 
its  hidden  corruption  stand  confessed.  To  this  end 
is  the  discipline  of  life,  to  this  end  the  allurements 
of  temptation,  to  this  end  all  trials  and  sufferings,  — 
God's  heralds  of  mercy  in  rough  disguise,  —  to  this 
end  at  first  his  holy  word,  that  holds  to  human  na- 
ture an  unerring  glass.  Thus  our  most  secret  foes 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.  241 

come  out  of  their  ambush  and  file  before  us  in  dark 
array  till  our  SELF-REVELATION  is  complete. 

3.  Then  comes  the  battle  of  life.     Then  we  un- 
derstand what  the  old  saints  mean,  who   call   the 
Christian  life  a  life  of  struggle  and  warfare.     We 
seem,  it  may  be,  to  have  backslidden  from  our  po- 
sition, when  we  embraced  in  our  first  enthusiasm 
the  idea  of  the  Christian  life ;  and  the  blessed  pros- 
pect that  rose  on  our  earlier  vision  is  snatched  from 
view.     At  the  season  of  our  baptismal  vows,  the 
heavens  were  opening  and  the  Holy  Dove  descend- 
ing.    That  has  passed  away  like  a  dream  of  para- 
dise, and  we  find  ourselves  on  the  desert  of  tempta- 
tion in  conflict  with  its  beasts  of  prey.     Our  deep- 
est want  is  now  felt ;  all  human  aid  is  utterly  in- 
sufficient ;  mere  examples  and  models  of  perfection 
mock  and  afflict  us,  for  we  cannot  reach  them ;  the 
teachings  of  conflicting  sects  grate  on  our  ears  like 
Babel-noises ;  we  see  away  and  above  us  the  land 
of  peace,  but,  hedged  about  with  foes,  we  cannot 
travel  its  upward  path,  while 

"  Rooted  here  we  stand,  and  gaze 
On  those  bright  steps  that  heavenward  raise 
Their  practicable  way." 

Such  is  the  region  where  lies  the  CONFLICT  OF  LIFK? 
when  our  weakness  is  felt  most  despairingly,  and 
we  fling  away  as  worthless  our  broken  shield. 

4.  Then  the  want  within  us  points  to  Him  who 
alone  can  save.     The  Mediator,  from  whom  comes 
to  us  the  all-revealing  and  renewing  Divinity,  rises 
on  our  sight,  as  he  rose  on  his  early  Church,  like  the 

21 


242  THE    NEW    MAN. 

sun  shining  in  his  strength.  If  before  he  was  on- 
ly a  teacher  and  an  example,  he  is  now  a  quickening 
and  regenerating  power.  If  before  we  were  com- 
fortless and  desolate,  yet  basking  in  the  clear  blaze 
of  his  Divinity,  the  Comforter  falls  on  our  souls  like 
showers  of  morning  light.  If  before  we  trusted  to 
the  barren  technicologies  of  schools  and  sects,  they 
now  melt  away  like  web-work  before  this  bright 
coming  of  the  Lord.  If  before  we  trusted  to  a 
righteousness  imputed,  we  now  rejoice  in  a  right- 
eousness imparted  every  hour.  If  then  we  were 
only  conscious  of  indwelling  sin,  we  now  become 
daily  conscious  of  the  indwelling  Christ.  If  God 
before  had  been  to  us  only  as  an  "  abstraction  "  and 
a  "  principle,"  whom  prayer  could  not  reach  or  bring 
down  from  the  yielding  heavens,  call  loudly  as  we 
might,  he  is  now  brought  near  to  us  in  a  Mediator 
that  ever  floods  his  Church,  his  body  of  true  be- 
lievers, with  light  and  love.  A  new  heaven  has 
opened  above  us,  whence  falls  the  everlasting  light, 
and  whence  comes  the  blessed  ventilation  of  renew- 
ing gales.  Thus  we  "  receive  the  ATONEMENT." 

5.  And  yet  all  these  heavenly  frames  of  mind 
might  pass  away,  and  these  tender  communings 
might  grow  less  and  less  and  cease  for  ever,  did  they 
not  prompt  us  to  a  new  life  of  action,  and  give  us 
new  delight  in  doing  the  Divine  will.  But  Christ 
thus  received  seeks  a  new  incarnation  in  every  deed 
we  do.  The  holy  affections  wrought  within  become 
our  permanent  possessions,  because  they  are  embod- 
ied in  the  daily  forth-goings  of  a  Christian  life,  with 
all  its  radiating  charities.  And  since  he  that  doeth 


RETROSPECT   AND   PROSPECT.  243 

the  Divine  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  while 
every  revelation  prompts  to  deed,  every  deed  be- 
comes in  turn  a  revelation.  So  man  becomes  a  new 
creation,  ever  rising  towards  perfection,  beneath  the 
hand  of  the  Omnipotent  Framer.  "  I  saw  a  new 
heaven  and  a  NEW  EARTH,  for  the  first  heaven  and 
the  first  earth  were  passed  away." 

Not  always,  not  often  indeed,  does  our  warfare  en- 
tirely cease,  so  that  we  feel  that  our  day  of  proba- 
tion is  over  and  our  final  heaven  has  begun.  The 
old  lusts  and  appetites,  though  they  grow  weaker 
and  weaker,  sometimes  awake  and  renew  the  con- 
flict, after  we  thought  our  final  victory  had  been 
won.  Doubts  will  arise  and  becloud  our  faith,  and 
the  prospect  that  opened  so  fair  upon  us  dissolves 
away.  But  he  who  lives  the  life  we  have  described, 
ascends  sometimes  those  sun-smit  summits  where 
the  tempters  never  come,  above  all  cares  and  trou- 
bles, above  even  the  clouds  and  the  thunders,  where 
he  catches  the  fore-gleams  of  the  land  of  peace  and 
has  the  earnest  of  its  blissful  rest.  There  are 
those  who,  while  yet  enrobed  with  mortality,  have 
reached  these  golden  heights  never  to  descend  from 
them,  never  more  to  be  tempted  by  sin,  never  more 
to  be  perplexed  with  doubt,  whose  placid  affections 
are  never  ruffled,  but  rise  in  perpetual  prayer,  and 
on  whose  ears  the  sounds  from  the  world  they  have 
overcome  rise  like  murmurs  from  a  land  afar.  Such 
is  entire  regeneration.  If  we  follow  Christ  in  the 
regeneration,  and  are  faithful  unto  the  end,  death 
may  find  us  at  that  peaceful  summit  of  the  western 
hills. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

VISTAS. 

"  For  brass  I  will  bring  gold,  and  for  iron  I  will  bring  silTer,  and  for  wood  brass, 
and  for  stones  iron."  —  ISAIAH  Ix.  17. 

WE  revert  to  the  law  of  descent,  so  clearly  and  for- 
cibly unfolded  by  the  Apostle,  the  law  through  whose 
operation  come  both  the  fall  and  the  restoration  of 
man.  In  running  out  the  parallel  between  Adam 
and  Christ,  he  makes  the  blessing  commensurate  with 
the  bane.  Through  the  first  all  die,  for  the  foul  tides 
of  a  perverted  ancestral  life  flow  on  with  ever-fresh 
accumulations  of  moral  disease  :  through  the  last 
shall  all  be  made  alive,  because  the  new  life  impart- 
ed by  Jesus  Christ  is  also  transmissive,  gathering 
power  and  intensity  with  every  age,  and  becoming 
the  richest  inheritance  of  man.  This  is  waxing 
while  the  other  is  waning.  Hence  a  LAW  OF  PROG- 
RESS made  operative  by  Christianity,  which  in  time 
is  sure  to  renovate  the  world.  While  the  work  of 
individual  regeneration  is  going  on,  the  work  of  so- 
cial and  humanitary  regeneration  is  proceeding  at 
the  same  time.  Not  solely,  nor  yet  principally,  by 
conversion  and  conquest,  is  Christ  to  take  possession 
of  his  kingdom.  He  comes  by  a  more  internal  way. 


VISTAS.  245 

By  generic  tendencies,  that  gather  purity  and  vol- 
ume the  farther  they  extend,  the  race  is  advancing, 
and  a  "  golden  progeny "  daily  descending  from 
heaven.  Hereditary  evil  is  to  grow  less  and  less, 
while  a  pure  hereditary  life  becomes  more  deep  and 
strong.  The  regeneration  of  the  individual  is  meas- 
ured in  its  successive  stages  by  the  months  and 
years;  the  regeneration  of  the  race  by  cycles  and 
centuries.  From  year  to  year  we  may  not  see  the 
work  of  progress,  but  by  comparing  remote  periods 
we  see  the  melioration  of  its  cruel  customs,  the 
gentle  infusion  of  the  spirit  of  mercy,  and  the  ex- 
tension of  the  ties  of  brotherhood  from  class  to  class 
and  from  people  to  people,  binding  together  anew  a 
race  that  had  existed  so  long  as  portions  and  frag- 
ments of  an  ancient  ruin. 

Hence  the  first  essential  work  of  reform  is  in  sep- 
arate individual  minds.  We  may  besiege  our  social 
evils  from  without  with  ever  so  much  of  noise  and 
shouting,  but  since  they  are  but  our  inward  and 
perverted  life,  putting  out  into  leaf  and  flower,  we 
might  tear  away  the  leaves  and  flowers  only  to  be 
produced  again.  Not  that  reform  should  not  be 
preached,  and  Christianity  faithfully  applied  to  all 
outward  abuses.  But  the  prime  duty  of  every  man, 
not  only  to  himself  and  God,  but  to  his  race,  is  self- 
purification,  so  that  his  nature  shall  be  receptive 
of  angelic  affections  and  transmit  them  as  the  best 
inheritance  to  the  coming  time.  He  is  no  true  re- 
former who  does  not  study  as  in  the  fear  of  God 
the  laws  of  his  own  existence,  both  psychological 


246  THE    NEW   MAN. 

and  physical,  and  conform  to  them  as  laws  that  are 
sacred  and  Divine,  deeming  the  transmission -of  evil 
tendencies  as  the  foulest  wrong  which  he  can  inflict 
upon  his  kind.  They  have  done  the  most  for  the 
race  whose  inheritance  to  it  is  a  pure  and  lofty  man- 
hood, and  from  whom  the  sacred  stream  of  being 
comes  down  unpolluted  and  strong.  By  such  a 
"  transmigration  of  souls  "  they  become  immortal 
on  the  earth,  and  they  are  abroad  on  errands  of 
goodness  while  their  bodies  moulder  in  the  cere- 
ments of  the  grave. 

There  is  a  tradition  of  the  Church  founded  on  ob- 
scure prophecy,  that  Christ  is  to  descend  again  upon 
the  earth  and  reign  a  thousand  years.  Like  the 
Jewish  tradition  of  the  Messiah,  we  think  it  has 
gathered  around  it  human  additions  by  coming 
through  a  corrupt  past.  He  came  to  the  Jews  in  a 
manner  they  had  not  conceived  of,  in  their  dreams 
of  a  temporal  kingdom  ;  and  so  his  coming  again  will 
doubtless  transcend  the  highest  thoughts  of  a  sen- 
sual age.  He  comes  not  from  without  nor  with  ob- 
servation. He  hath  imported  a  new  element  into 
human  history,  which  is  to  work  there  for  ever  and 
prevail  at  length  over  all  other  elements.  Hidden 
deep  beneath  the  world's  tumult  and  confusion,  it 
remains  secure.  Not  alone  by  preachers  and  apos- 
tles and  outward  means  is  this  new  force  to  prevail. 
Mark  the  terms  in  the  two  branches  of  Paul's  an- 
tithesis :  "  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  be  made  alive."  As  the  Adam  of  history  be- 
came the  Adam  of  consciousness,  and  passed  thence 


VISTAS.  247 

into  history  again  and  took  possession  of  the  world, 
so  the  Christ  of  history  becomes  the  Christ  of  con- 
sciousness, passing  again  into  history  till  he  lights 
up  all  its  dark  and  bloody  annals.  He  descends  not 
through  the  cloven  heavens,  but  through  the  human 
soul,  in  that  divine  life  which  grows  more  fall  and 
deep  with  every  new  generation,  shaping  to  itself 
first  man's  inmost  being,  and  thence  flowering  forth 
into  the  most  external  affairs,  in  works  of  justice 
and  love,  until  the  face  of  the  earth  wears  again  the 
bloom  and  the  beauty  of  Eden.  Old  prophecy  de- 
scribes the  reign  of  Christ  as  the  reign  of  peace. 
When  he  comes  within  us  to  disarm  and  expel  our 
domestic  foes,  —  they  of  our  own  spiritual  household, 
—  the  conflict  there  is  at  an  end,  and  the  soul  is  "  a 
dwelling-place  for  all  sweet  sounds  and  harmonies." 
When  this  work  is  everywhere  accomplished,  there 
will  also  be  peace  without ;  for  society  is  the  mani- 
festation of  man's  inmost  state,  the  radiation  of  his 
most  secret  life  on  the  face  of  nature.  So  when 
that  life  is  purified,  it  will  fill  the  world  with  the 
trophies  of  peaceful  industry,  with  the  consenting 
voice  of  peoples  and  nations  restored  to  one  brother- 
hood, and  with  the  hosannas  of  a  redeemed  humani- 
ty that  strews  the  way  of  the  Lord  with  palms.  Not 
out  of  the  skies,  therefore,  but  out  of  the  depths  of 
human  nature  renewed  and  restored,  does  Christ 
come  to  establish  his  throne  on  the  earth.  When 
the  law  of  descent  is  restored  completely  to  its  benef- 
icent operation,  and  when  it  shall  send  along  the 
future  only  an  enlarging  inheritance  of  good,  society 


248        ,  THE   NEW   MAN. 

and  the  race,  as  well  as  the  individual,  will  be  re- 
generated, or,  in  Paul's  language,  "  made  alive  in 
Christ " ;  and  then  the  night  of  centuries  brightens 
into  the  millennial  day. 

Sublime,  therefore,  is  the  march  of  generations. 
The  kingdom  of  Christ  will  not  fail  of  its  triumphs, 
since  Christ  not  less  then  Adam  has  become  im- 
manent in  humanity.  When  weary  of  present  evil 
and  surrounding  corruption,  it  is  animating  some- 
times to  look  away,  and  in  the  sure  light  of  Chris- 
tian truth  to  watch  the  lengthening  file  of  years  that 
grow  radiant  as  they  run. 


THE    END. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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Series  9482 


